
Class (f ^y-O 

Book.__ 



Copyrightl^ , 




COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




CAPT. GEORGE COFFIN. 



A JKonrrr loijag? 



to 



California 



and 



Round the World 



1849 to 1852 



Ship Alhambra 
Captain George Coffin 



UOSARY of CONGRESS 
I wu tiopies iteceivei 

AUG 8 )908 



XXc. ,v. 



c»py a. 



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Copyrighted by 

GORHAM B. COFFIN. 

Chicago, 111. 



June, 1908. 



FOREWORD. 



In publishing this work I take pleasure in submitting the 
following brief explanation: The author, Capt. George Coffin, 
is my father. Since his death the original manuscript in his 
own handwriting has come into my possession, and no copy has 
previously existed. In view of its great interest to all his family 
(of whom there are now many members) and as a tribute to 
his noble life and great qualities of heart and mind, and believ- 
ing that the reading world are ever seeking light and knowledge, 
I deem its publication justified. In this spirit I offer it to the 
family and friends and to all those who may choose to read it, 
hoping that they will find in its pages some hitherto unrecorded 
historical events. Sincerely, 

Gorham B. Coffin. 
Chicago, July 15, 1908. 



PREFACE. 



Having been, by the decree of fate, the freaks of fortune, the 
force of circumstances, the destiny of my horoscope, or by some 
other unseen influence, called or sent, drawn or driven at an 
advanced age, to wander 'round the globe, and to spend four 
years far away from my family, during which time, I have been 
in a peculiar manner the sport and football of some or all the 
agencies I have named, — I have now, while on my way home, and 
daily drawing nearer to my native land, thought to employ some 
of my leisure hours at sea, in recording some of my experience. 
I am doing this partly to amuse myself, but chiefly because I be- 
lieve my journal will be interesting to the members of my family, 
for whose information and amusement I am bound to contribute 
all in my power, and to the head of which, my well beloved wife, 
this book is affectionately dedicated, as a feeble token of my 
estimation of her many virtues. 

This record is drawn up partly from recollection and partly 
from notes and memoranda taken "en passant," but now when 
1 look back on what has passed, it appears to me to have been 
a trance, a wonderful dream, a something unreal, a great blank 
in my existence. 

I fancy this book will be kept as an heirloom in my family, 
and I here charge my children never to give away to despond- 
ency under misfortune. Should you be called to encounter dis- 
appointment and losses, remember your Grandfather and your 
Father ; be honest, be firm, be resolute. Hope now, hope always ; 
reflect that all things are under the direction of a Supreme Being, 
who "doeth all things well," and in the darkest hour seek con- 
solation in that reflection. 

Should these pages pass in review of other eyes, I trust they 
will look with favour on the simplicity of the style, remembering 
that it is intended only as a family souvenir. 



*~^y^^&*rf^™~ y 



A PIONEER VOYAGE. 



CHAPTER I. 

On the fifth day of February, 1849, I arrived at New Orleans 
in command of the fine ship Ocean Queen of Newburyport from 
Liverpool, having on board three hundred and fifty steerage pas- 
sengers, chiefly Irish emigrants. The passage had been long 
and the first part of it exceedingly boisterous, and I had been 
obliged to put in at Fayal to replenish my stock of provisions 
and water. 

Fayal is the chief commercial island of the Azores, the town 
Aorta is situated in a cove on its eastern side and opposite to 
the Island of Pico, with its peak rising in a cone to the height 
of 7,000 feet, its apex, covered with snow sometimes, seen rising 
towering in the clear atmosphere above the clouds, and visible at 
the distance of a hundred and fifty miles. The passage between 
the islands is about five miles wide and ten long. 

I passed in at the northern entrance, and as I opened out 
the town, I was accosted by the captain of the port, who had 
come off in his barge to waylay me. As soon as I came within 
hail, he raised a speaking trumpet as long as the royal yard, and 
bellowed out, in broken English, "Ship hoy, what ship that, 
where come from, and where bound to, how long been out, and 
what for come here?" To all this I replied in one breath, "Ship 
Ocean Queen, from Liverpool for New Orleans, twenty-nine days 
out, put in for water." 

At the word, Liverpool, he brandished his long trumpet, and 
in a very excited tone, screamed out, "No ankly here, Liverpool 
got cholera, no posseeble ankly here, go way, go way." Now I 
had taken in sail, preparatory to coming to anchor, but it was in 
vain I represented to this important functionary my distressed 
situation, and assured him that we were all well on board ; to all 
I could say, the only reply was, "Go way, no posseebly ankly 
here, go way." 

7 



8 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

Now, I had determined to anchor in spite of the long trumpet, 
but while this colloquy was going on, the ship had drifted off 
the bank, so that I could not anchor. I then showed a signal of 
distress, and the American Consul sent off his barge for informa- 
tion, and through his influence (which I afterwards learned was 
tantamount to that of the Governor), I was permitted to anchor 
on the edge of the bank, in thirty fathoms. 

He sent off what I wanted in a large open lighter, which was 
anchored a cable's length to windward of the ship, and the crew 
left her and went on shore. I then sent a crew and brought the 
lighter alongside, and after discharging her, we placed her at 
her moorings again, and left her, and made a signal, and the 
men came from the town and took her away. The Consul then 
sent his clerk off in his private barge (guarded by two quar- 
antine officers), with my account. 

They came within about fifteen feet of the ship's gangway, 
and reached my bill attached to a long pole. I affixed to the 
end of the pole my draft and my letters, which they dipped three 
times into the sea, and then with a pair of tongs deposited them 
in a tin box which was locked by one of the guards with a 
polished brass padlock, bearing the imprint of the royal arms of 
Portugal. On shore at the "lazaretto" these "dangerous" papers 
were purified by fumigation with sulphur, before they could be 
touched by human hands. This is an example of the quarantine 
regulations of Portugal, Spain and the ports of the Mediter- 
ranean. 

Having accomplished my purpose in coming here, I got under- 
way, and proceeded out by the southern passage, the wind was 
southerly, and almost immediately came on to blow a severe 
gale, which brought us down to close reefed sails. I placed the 
ship's head to the westward, the sea increased, and I did but 
just clear the southwest point of Fayal at midnight; and at 
daylight the next morning, the island bore southeast ten miles 
distant. 

The wind had now veered to the west, and I bore up and 
passed once more down through the Fayal passage, and as I 
came opposite the town, I found my friend, the Port Captain 
of the port at his post, and again the long trumpet was pointed 



TRADE WINDS 9 

at me, and again I was saluted with "Ship hoy, what ship that, 
where come from, where bound to, how many days been out, and 
what for come here?" To which I answered, "Boo, boo, boo, 
boo!" 

Question: "That the same ship here yesterday?" "Don't 
you see it is?" said I. 

Question : "What for come back again, what you want now ?" 
Answer: "All I want is to get clear of your island." 

He then waved his elongated speaking tube and bid me 
"Adios, Senor Capitan, bon viage." "Goodbye, Senor," said I, 
and pushed on to the south to get into the region of the trade 
winds. On the first day of January, 1849, I S ot tne trades in 
Lat. 27 °, which continued to blow steadily but lightly the re- 
mainder of the passage. I then passed down between St. Dom- 
ingo and Cuba and round Cape Antonio, January 29th. 

We turned Cape Antonio, the west end of Cuba, the cur- 
rent setting strong to the eastward against the regular trade 
wind, which was blowing strong, caused a short high sea and set 
the ship rolling and pitching violently. An Irishman was pass- 
ing from the cooking range to the hatchway ladder, with his 
dish of oatmeal gruel in one hand and a tin pot of coffee in the 
other, when a sudden lurch threw him into the lee scupper and he 
brought up with great force, with his head against the waterway, 
where he lay partially stunned for a moment. On gathering 
himself up he bellowed out, "Och, by the powers, but I've 
mashed me nose so that I cannot hear." 

His nose had come in contact with a ring bolt and peeled the 
skin off from one side of it. I persuaded him to let me bathe 
it with friar's balsam. On the first application, he leaped half 
a rod, screaming out with tears in his eyes, "Och hone, yer 
honer's worship, but that's the divil's own intment sure, it makes 
me nose smart so that I cannot see." So, as Paddy both sees and 
hears with his nose, that important member must not be neg- 
lected, and the surgeon turned back the torn skin, and with 
plastering and poulticing soon made it all right again. 

Then a northwest course of four hundred miles brought me to 
the mouth of the Mississippi. On crossing the bar at the south- 
west pass, in tow of a powerful steam tug, the ship took a rank 
sheer, the steamer cast us off, and we ran with great force 



io A PIONEER VOYAGE 

stem on to the ship Adirondack, Capt. Gillespie, which vessel was 
lying aground on the bar, carrying away her mizzen mast, and 
smashing her quarter boat, and breaking in her quarter and deck 
cabin, also breaking our starboard anchor stock and carrying 
away our fore yard and jib boom. . Fortunately no one was 
injured, although the pilot had sent all the passengers forward 
to trim the ship. Not a word was spoken and I noticed that 
just before the collision Capt. Gillespie darted into his cabin and 
I saw no more of him. We soon swung clear, and proceeded 
on up the river. 

I found Capt. Henry Shoof at New Orleans, he had come on 
to relieve me in command, he being part owner, and my term 
of service having expired. As I was about leaving for home, 
I received an application to take command of a ship about to 
be fitted out for California with freight and passengers. At first 
I peremptorily declined, but on reflection I considered it my duty 
to accept the situation, and I made a proposition to the agent 
which was at once accepted, and I was placed in charge of the 
old ship Alhambra with a carte blanche to put her in condition 
for the voyage, and to fit her for two hundred passengers. 

I found her completely run out in tackle and apparel, and 
rotten fore and aft, and it was necessary to put her in dock and 
recopper, and it cost $10,000 to make her fit for the voyage. I 
had her cleared of every obstruction between decks, and a range 
of double staterooms built on both sides. Between the fore and 
main masts was a tier of wide sleeping berths, and between the 
main and mizzen masts were four long tables. In every state- 
room was a patent side light and ventilator, and a large draft 
hole was cut in each bow. 

On the starboard quarter was a large room for the surgeon, 
and on the larboard quarter was the pantry, across the stern 
were shelves for dishes, with six large windows opening be- 
tween. Across the bows was a range of wash basins, and around 
the luff of the bows were sleeping berths for the cook and 
stewards. Every stateroom was furnished with new mattresses, 
linen and blankets, and an abundance of spare bedding filled a 
large clothes-chest, fitted up near the pumproom. Everything 
was done and furnished that I could think of, to make passen- 
gers comfortable. 




PLAN OF BERTH DECK, SHIP "ALHAMBRA. 

By Captain George Coffin. 



GETTING PASSENGERS n 

On the 20th March, she was finished and taken to her loading 
berth at La Fayette, where she was visited by a great number 
of people, among them by the editors of the city newspapers, 
who all published commendatory articles. 

A considerable number of passengers were already engaged, 
and were allowed to come on board and live free of expense, and 
as fast as others secured a passage ticket, they were allowed the 
same privilege. But early in April the cholera broke out at 
New Orleans, and the reports that were sent up the river de- 
terred persons intending to emigrate to California from coming 
down to the city, and they went by the overland route. 

A party of four had come from Kentucky, and taken up their 
quarters on board with me. The first night on board the head 
of this party, an elderly gentleman, was seized with cholera at 
9 p. m. I went for a physician, who gave him some medicine, 
and said he would do very well. Towards midnight his symp- 
toms grew alarming. I went again for the doctor, and after a 
great deal of persuasion, he roused out and went with me, and 
we got on board just as the old gentleman drew his last breath, 
and the only service the doctor could render was to show me the 
way to an undertaker. 

I was sensible of the importance of keeping this matter secret 
if possible, and before the sun rose, the mortal remains of the 
poor old man were laid in their last resting place, far away from 
the family he had so lately left, full of hope for the future. 
Some of the passengers on board, who had retired early, knew 
nothing of this till they were summoned to breakfast. 

But my attempts at secrecy were unavailing, it soon became 
noised about that we had the cholera on board, and an end was 
put to our expectations as to passengers, and it was with great 
difficulty that I could get labourers to finish stowing my cargo. 

On the 13th day of April I left the levee with the assistance 
of a steam tug. A large crowd of spectators thronged the levee : 
among them I noticed a lady dressed in black, who seemed to be 
beckoning to me to come on shore. Not being aware of any 
lady having any claims upon me, I hesitated, till a gentleman 
(Capt. Welsh), told me she was a Mrs. Jones, who desired to 
speak to me. I went on to the levee and she appeared to be in 



12 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

great distress on account of an unruly son, whom she had per- 
suaded the agent to take as a passenger at half price, to get rid 
of him. She said he was the son of her first husband (Daven- 
port), that he had been married, and that his dissipated conduct 
had caused the death of his wife, leaving two young children for 
her to support, as well as the worthless father. She gave me 
five half-eagles to give to him in San Francisco, and begged 
me not on any account to give him any of it at any place I might 
stop at. I have been thus particular as to this Mr. Davenport, 
as he is to figure again in this journal. 

At noon as we cast off from the levee, in tow of a steam 
tug, the bow hawser got entangled with a tier of flat boats, broke 
them all adrift, and they went driving down stream, and brought 
up in a mess across the bows of a tier of ships below. This 
accident caused delay in rounding the ship, and she drove fast 
into the mud on the opposite bank of the river. After half an 
hour of blowing and snorting, the steamer tugged us off again, 
and we came to an anchor at Slaughterhouse Point, where some 
friends of Mr. Sam Moss, Jr. (supercargo) took their leave. 

At 6 p. m. started again, and proceeded rapidly down the 
river. About 9 p. m. as I was sitting in my cabin ruminating 
upon my situation and thinking of the dear family that I was, 
as it seemed, • abandoning, I was startled by the rough voice of 
the captain of the steamer bawling out, "Hard a starboard !" and 
directly afterwards screaming out, "Hard a port !" I ran out on 
deck just in time to see the ship run stem on to a schooner that 
was lying at anchor in the river. The crew of the schooner 
seized hold of the ship's bobstays, and saved themselves, but the 
captain, who had turned in, had but just time to jump in his 
nightdress, into his boat, which fortunately was towing along- 
side, when his vessel rolled down upon her side, and sank beneath 
the murky Mississippi. 

This disaster was caused by the vacillating management of 
the commander of the steamer; when the schooner was first 
seen, a slight sheer to either side would have carried us clear of 
her, but having put the helm to starboard, and then just as the 
rudders began to act in full power, then suddenly to reverse them, 
any greenhorn ought to have foreseen the consequence. Self- 



DOWN THE RIVER 13 

possession, prompt and steady action, are very necessary qualifi- 
cations in a shipmaster, and especially so for the captain of a 
Mississippi steamboat. 

The next morning when about to cross the bar with a strong 
breeze from the northwest, smoke was seen to issue from a crack 
in the head of the mainmast. I directed the captain of the 
steamer to come to anchor, and it was an hour before we could 
get at and extinguish the fire. A spark from the steamer's 
chimney had found its way into an opening between the mast 
and trestle tree, and had ignited; it was at last extinguished by 
means of a syringe from the medicine chest. 

Finding no serious damage, I again got underway, and call- 
ing another steamer alongside, with one securely lashed on each 
side, we "Mowed" and snorted, roared and bellowed through, not 
over, the bar, dragging a three foot channel through the mud, 
as we passed, and by breaking up the crust, liberating two ships 
that had been lying there aground for a week. The wind was 
blowing strong from the northwest and at 1 1 a. m. the lighthouse 
at the southwest pass, sank below the horizon. 



CHAPTER II. 

RULES AND REGULATIONS. 

The Commander and Officers of this ship will endeavour to 
promote the comfort and welfare of the passengers, and to do 
this, it is expected that the following rules and regulations will 
be cheerfully complied with: 

I. 

Courtesy and forbearance on the part of each are necessary 
for the comfort of all. 

2. 

Should any passenger feel himself aggrieved, he is requested 
to make his complaint to the Commander in person, with the 
assurance that all reasonable complaints shall be attended to and 
promptly redressed. 

3- 

An ample supply of safety lamps will be provided, and no 
open light will be allowed, except by direction of the Surgeon, 
in cases of sickness. 

4- 

The firing of muskets and pistols, or the use of gunpowder 
in any way is strictly prohibited. 

5- 
Passengers are requested to abstain from holding conversa- 
tion with any of the crew while on duty, and particularly with 
the man at the wheel. 

6. 

It is particularly and earnestly requested that the use of pro- 
fane language may be carefuly avoided. 
Breakfast will be served at 8 a. m. 
Dinner " " " " 1 p. m. 
Supper " " " " 6 p. m. 

Geo. Coffin., Commander. 

14 



FOOD AND PASSENGERS 15 

For the first two days, the attendance at table was rather 
meagre, most of the passengers being engaged in casting up 
their accounts with the shore, and settling their stomachs for a 
sea diet. And while they are thus occupied, I will try to enumer- 
ate some of them, whom I may have occasion to introduce in 
some scenes in my narrative. 

First, there was a large house on deck, which was appro- 
priated to the seamen's quarters and the kitchen. This left a 
room fourteen feet square which was taken by a party of three 
families, viz., Mr. Cumstock, wife and two children; Mr. Lane, 
wife and one child ; Mr. Bogert, wife and four children. Mr. 
Cumstock was a vain, egotistical individual ; his wife, a mild and 
amiable lady. Mr. Lane was a very quiet sort of a man ; his 
wife was a "Xantippe." 

Mr. Bogert and wife were married the day before we left 
New Orleans. He was a widower and she a widow, and sister 
of Mr. B's first wife. They had each but recently lost their 
former partners, and each had a suckling infant, both of which 
Mrs. B. took to nurse. It was thought to be a good arrange- 
ment, and the first time I saw Mrs. B. I was quite favourably 
impressed — but, oh woman, who can fathom you? You are 
either an angel or a she-devil incarnate. But enough of Mrs. B. 
for the present. 

There was also a deck cabin with two divisions, the after- 
division being occupied by the supercargo and myself. The 
fore part contained accommodations for six gentlemen, who paid 
fifty dollars extra for the privilege of occupying them. 

Between decks there was a German doctor (Tappe) with his 
wife, fair, fat and forty, and a little fat, sleek black dog; a Mr. 
Leon (German) with his wife and a little girl; a Mr. Mordecai 
(Jew) and his wife; a Mr. Tineman and wife, young and re- 
cently married. She was a lively, prattling girl, and he was very 
jealous of her. There was also a Mr. Ladd, formerly of Bel- 
fast, Maine, with his wife and three small children ; with them 
came a widow (Mrs. Lathrop) in search of a second husband, 
who she was "nous verrons." 

There was also a Snip in the form of a diminutive Irish tailor, 
with a wife and three small children. Now, if it takes nine 



16 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

tailors to make a man, Snip's wife was "per contra" equal to 
nine ordinary women. She stood six feet in her slippers, with a 
frame otherwise proportionate. But I must give her the credit 
of being the least trouble of any woman on board, she minded 
her own business, kept her children tidy and her husband as 
straight as a B line. There were some half a dozen other married 
couples of no note and a heterogeneous conglomeration of the 
masculine gender, mostly from the western states. There were 
lawyers, doctors, ministers, shopkeepers, gamblers, rowdies and 
gentlemen of no particular profession, all eager for a short pass- 
age to the new found land of gold. There was one old gentle- 
man who came from Mobile, 70 years of age and consumptive, 
he had a wife about 40; he said he undertook the voyage for 
the benefit of his health, but he took care to provide shovel, pick, 
hoe and bar. 

April 16th. — Tortugas in sight. The passengers have got over 
their sea sickness, and the stewards have now their hands full. 
We have three different messes: The party in the deckhouse 
have their table to themselves, and half a dozen others who paid 
fifty dollars extra mess in the aftercabin. 

I had told all the passengers that there would be but one 
table, and that they would all live as I did. I therefore took 
my seat at the head of the tables between decks, and took care 
to see that there was no difference in the fare, whether on deck 
or below. As the Widow Lathrop had no protection, I gave her 
a seat at my right at table, of which I had cause to repent after- 
ward. 

Towards the head of my table sat the rest of the women with 
their husbands and children, and it was quite an interesting sight 
to look from my position over three tables each thirty feet long, 
and to observe the different features and actions of my voracious 
family. Everything went on well, the fare was good and ample 
with a plenty of servants, and throughout the voyage, I had but 
one occasion to speak to a passenger at table for misconduct. 
This was in the case of a western minister. We were near Rio 
Janeiro and our stock of fresh meat had given out, when at 
dinner one day I heard this man call out to the chief steward 
in a sarcastic way to send the chickens along. As soon as I 



LETTER FOR HOME 17 

had finished my dinner, I left to go on deck, and passing by this 
man's seat, I called his attention to me, and told him that my 
tables were set for gentlemen, and not for rowdies. He looked 
like a lawyer without a brief, but as he could not find anyone 
disposed to join him in growling, he was obliged to submit 
quietly to the rebuke, and before the passage was ended, he be- 
came the best friend I had among them and got up a compli- 
mentary letter to the owners. 

Friday, April 19th. — A fine day, standing out the Gulf of 
Florida, Cat Key abreast, fell in with several ships bound down 
the gulf, sent a letter by one of them to the agents, in which 
I had the pleasure to say that we were all well on board. This 
letter was probably published and served to dispel the anxiety of 
friends, for it had been predicted that the cholera would break 
out on board, as the last ship that left New Orleans for Cali- 
fornia had lost several of her passengers by that distemper, dur- 
ing the first week out. 

On the 20th we passed Matanilla, and I shaped a course so as 
to pass Bermuda fifteen miles to the south of it, which we did on 
the 30th. The wind prevailed from the south and was very 
light, which carried us to Long. 30 , Lat. 21 ° before we received 
the N. E. trades. 

Saw the island of Saint Anthony on the 15th May. This 
is the northwest island of the group called Cape Verde Islands. 
It is a high, barren, uninviting spot. I saw no signs of animal 
life though we passed within five miles. These islands are very 
subject to drought and famine. A few years since I was in 
Havana, when three vessels came in there crowded with emi- 
grants from the Cape Verdes ; the poor wretches had been obliged 
to flee from starvation, and to let themselves out in competition 
with the slaves of Cuba. Oh ! God of Justice ! why such a differ- 
ence in the social condition of Thy creatures? 

Saw Brava the next day, and crossed the Equator on the 
23rd. It has been one of the rules of the sea, to introduce green 
hands and passengers to King Neptune on passing the Line. 
On one of my voyages to India, I had some half a dozen passen- 
gers, scions of the codfish aristocracy of Boston ; they were a 
wild set of boys, and I was not averse to the sailors' giving them 



18 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

a taste of old Neptune's baptism on their promising me that they 
would be careful not to hurt them. We passed from North to 
South latitude during the afternoon, and when the shades of 
evening were falling, a hoarse voice was heard ahead hailing, 
"Ship aho-oa," to which one of the old salts who was on the 
lookout replied, "Halloo-oah." 

"Heave your ship to, for I am coming on board." 

The seamen now considering themselves under the immediate 
orders of the Sea God, without any reference to me or the 
mates, laid the maintopsail aback, and the ship's headway was 
stopped. The sailors had previously hoisted a barrel of water 
up into the foretop, leaving two of their number up there with it. 

The rest of them were clustered on the forecastle, when old 
King Neptune was seen rising up over the bows, first his cap 
(a mess kid bottom up with a large tar brush for a plume), then 
a forehead of yellow metal, with two great holes for eyes and 
conchshells for eyeballs, a larger conch for a nose, and a mouth 
slit from side to side, and filled with small yellow shells for 
teeth. His neck cloth was a mat, with the corners of a tarpaulin 
standing out for a collar. He was loosely robed in a spare 
studding sail and his trident was (of course) the shark grain. 
He seated himself on the windlass and the sailors all made a 
profound obeisance to his Majesty. 

The "B'hoys" on the quarter deck were enjoying themselves 
in singing "Dandy Jim" and "Old Dan Tucker," when Neptune 
made his appearance on deck, and they all went forward to see. 
Just as they came under the foretop Neptune in a speech was 
saying, "I rule on the sea, I cause the winds, and I order and it 
rains," and the sailors in the top capsized the barrel and down 
came a cataract upon the B'hoys. 

It is a rule of the Sea King to initiate all his fresh subjects 
by shaving them with an iron hoop, having lathered them with 
a paint brush dipped in the cook's slush barrel, but he sometimes 
dispenses with this ceremony, in consideration of a fee of a 
bottle of rum. All the B'hoys but one preferred to pay the fee. 
That one was a Mr. Hall, a ministerial student, a miserable bigot, 
who had the charity to tell me that I was no Christian because I 
professed to be a Unitarian. He was a weak, conceited fool, 



KING NEPTUNE 19 

and apparently thought he was going to Calcutta to teach the 
Bishop. He was a teetotaller from principle, and could not dam- 
age his conscience by bribing a god with a bottle of rum. 

So by the command of the Sovereign of the Sea, the sea- 
men blindfolded Hall and seated him on a board laid loosely 
across a steep tub, half full of pure sea water. One of the tars 
acted as barber, while Neptune questioned the candidate as to 
his former life, cautioning him to make true answers on pain of 
his future displeasure. "Where were you born?" but the mo- 
ment poor H. opened his mouth to reply, the barber lathered his 
lips with a paint brush, and afterward scraped off the sweet 
scented lather with his iron hoop. Then at a signal from his 
Majesty, the board slipped out, and H. slipped into the steep 
tub and the sailor scrubbed and rubbed him till their sovereign 
master told them to stop. Neptune then bestowed his blessing 
upon the novice, with a free permit to traverse any part of his 
dominion in future. 

When this ceremony had concluded, and the bottle of rum 
had been discussed by all hands, they formed in procession and 
escorted his Majesty three times around the ship, and amid the 
noise and confusion of three real hearty sailor-like cheers, the 
God of the Sea plunged into his own dominions and drifted 
astern in a blaze of illumination. 

Now, all this was a farce got up by the old salts on board, 
one of them personating Neptune, and a large fender was thrown 
overboard at the close of the ceremony, accompanied by a number 
of empty bread barrels, rilled with oakum and ready to be ig- 
nited as they were thrown overboard. Hall was, however, so 
weak as to believe for a long while that it was a reality. 

On this voyage I am at present relating, I thought it prudent 
to put a veto upon any such demonstration as I have just de- 
scribed, much to the disappointment of the old seamen and some 
of the passengers. 



CHAPTER III. 

On the 26th of May, being in Lat. 4 South, Long. 30 , we 
received the first breath of the regular southeast trade winds, 
one of the phenomena of the atmosphere of our globe, which is 
constantly revolving upon its polar axis. Cold air is known to 
rush towards a heated surface to supply the vacuum caused by the 
ascent of the hot air, so there is a continual movement of the 
cold atmosphere from the poles towards the hottest part of the 
earth's surface, which is the Equator. Near the poles the move- 
ment of the earth in its diurnal revolution is comparatively slow, 
increasing rapidly as we approach the Equator; of course, the 
air which is at first flowing south from the North Pole, and north 
from the South Pole, is, by contact with the surface, forced 
with it to accompany it to the east, but it cannot be made to move 
as fast as the earth, and so appears to us to be blowing to the 
west, while it has not yet lost its equatorial tendency, and so 
within a distance of about 30 of the Equator north or south we 
find that the air is moving southwest or northwest and this we 
call the northeast or southeast trades. 

The southeast trades now prevailed so far from the south 
that I did but just clear the projecting capes of South America, 
and fell in with the Abrolhos bank, where I was becalmed a week. 
And here I first learned of the organization of a clique of know- 
ing ones, who had taken upon themselves to enlighten the rest 
of the passengers in regard to the navigation of the ship. 

The head of this clique was a broken down shipmaster (Capt. 
McDonald), who applied to me in New Orleans for a situation, 
in order to save the expense of a passage, and simply out of 
charity, I took him as a supernumerary, and let him mess with 
my officers. Next came the vain fool Cumstock, who had been 
a voyage to Europe and was of course qualified to criticize my 
qualification as navigator. Then a Mr. Chase, a New Orleans 
stevedore, who had no power to amuse himself except by watch- 
ing everything said or done by me or my mate, and reporting it 

20 



COMMITTEE ON NAVIGATION 21 

to the clique. There was one more, and that one was the black- 
guard Davenport. At New Orleans, he was acting as mate of 
the barque Florida, which vessel was on the berth for San Fran- 
cisco; when the Alhambra was laid on in opposition, she could 
get no freight or passengers, and her voyage was abandoned, 
and this scoundrel found his way on board the Alhambra in the 
manner I have before mentioned. 

As soon as I was informed of the doings of this clique of 
wise ones, I gave them the name of the "committee on navi- 
gation," and they passed by this designation during the remain- 
der of the voyage, continually subject to the jeers and gibes of 
the rest of the passengers. "I say, Tom," says one, "how far is it 
to Cape Horn?" "I don't know, Bill, you must ask the committee 
on N." "Jim," says another, "What's the latitude and longitude 
of Farmer Hutchins' piggery?" "How do you think I know, 
Davy, there's Crookshank, he is secretary of the committee on 
navigation, ask him, he ought to know," etc., etc. I, however, 
gave McDonald a sharp reprimand for his interference and left 
him in Rio Janeiro. 

I have been much amused to see how my German passengers 
lay in the sauerkraut. I had laid in a good supply of this article, 
aware of the partiality of Germans for their national dish. It 
is simply cabbage cut into small strips and salted. This dish 
was served up twice a week and I soon perceived that Mrs. Tappe 
was particularly fond of it. I have said that she was "fat, fair 
and forty," this is literally true for she was a rosy cheeked corpu- 
lent lady. On sauerkraut days Mrs. T. would seize the dish and 
fill her plate, and eat it as fast as she could, keeping her eyes 
fixed all the time upon the main dish, and appearing to me to be 
mentally saying, "Now, don't anybody empty that dish till I can 
get another chance at it." She probably imagined that it had a 
tendency to keep her body corporate in a condition to please the 
doctor, her husband. Oh, sauerkraut, nothing like sauerkraut ! 

One day while we were becalmed on the bank, a great many 
sharks were swimming around the ship, they were of all sizes 
from the infant of two feet to the old patriarch of eighteen feet in 
length. We caught several, those not over three feet long being 
very good eating, tender, juicy and sweet. I fancy you exclaim, 



2 2 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

"What! eat a shark!" And why not? If I should fall over- 
board, they would not hesitate to eat me, and why should I not 
retaliate ? The older ones are rank and oily. 

One very large fellow was playing around all the morning, 
and the passengers amused themselves by throwing over bits 
of meat and bread, which he would snap at, and seize sometimes 
before the bait reached the water. I thought it a good time to 
put a joke upon the voracious rascal, a thing I had often done 
before. I had a shin bone of beef boiled as hot as fire could 
make it, and watching a chance when he was close under the 
stern, I let it down by a ropeyarn. The shark saw it coming, 
and thinking (if a shark can think) that this was a rare bit, he 
jumped at and swallowed it without stopping to consider whether 
it was good to digest. He found it to be more than he had 
bargained for, and the way his tail and flippers made the water 
fly was a caution to all sharks to keep clear of the Alhambra. 
He leaped his whole length, fifteen feet, out of the water and 
started off with the speed of a locomotive, and the last we saw 
of him, he was leaping and "ricochetting" in a direct line for the 
coast of Africa. 

June 10th. — Fine weather, a steamer in sight, whose man- 
euvers are suspicious or at least singular. She runs a mile or 
so and then stops a few minutes, then starts off in another direc- 
tion a little way and lays by again. My passengers seem uneasy 
about her, at one time she steered directly for us, under a full 
head of steam, at about a mile's distance she suddenly let off 
steam, and I saw with my glass that they were heaving the lead. 
She is probably a surveying vessel taking soundings on the bank. 

June 15th. — Beautiful weather. The coast of Brazil in sight. 
Old Mr. Johnson has been gradually failing for some time, and 
it is evident, that he cannot continue many days. Of this 
he is as sensible as any of us. He sent for me to come to his 
room this morning. I found him very feeble but calm,, he talked 
about his approaching dissolution, as coolly as one would about 
going on a short journey. He said he had one request to make 
of me. I told him I would certainly do all in my power to 
meet his wishes. He then said, he was sensible his end was 
approaching, and he might die while the ship was in Rio. "In 



THE WIDOW AGAIN 



23 



that case, Captain," said he, "do not let me be buried on shore, 
but I beg of you to take me out to sea with you, and bury me 
in the pure blue ocean." He had his will drawn up by an Ala- 
bama lawyer on board, and witnessed by Mr. Lane and myself, 
bequeathing some landed property in Alabama and all his per- 
sonal effects to his wife. 

I have more than once had occasion to caution Mrs. Lathrop 
to be more circumspect in her conduct. She has been in the habit 
of separating herself from the other women in their evening 
parties on deck, and mixing in the circles of men, and last eve- 
ning I detected her in too great familiarity with one of the cabin 
passengers. She took my reproof in good part, but what is more 
deceitful than a fallen woman ? In trying to shield her character, 
I incurred the ill will of her lover, rowdy Stebbins, and he was 
ever after my unmitigated enemy. 

June 17th. — Passed Cape Frio, and early the next morning 
we were off the harbour of Rio Janeiro. The approach to this 
harbour is exceedingly grand. The distance from Cape Frio is 
about fifty miles, and on passing along, peak after peak comes in 
sight until the far-famed "sugar loaf" points out the entrance of 
the harbour, which is about two miles wide and opens out into 
a beautiful bay about twenty-five miles long and from five miles 
to ten miles broad, with magnificent scenery all around. There 
is a flat island in the middle of the entrance, towards this island 
the current was setting strong, and it being nearly calm, my ship 
became unmanageable. She drove rapidly towards the island till 
within a cable's length, when the offset of the current whirled 
her round the eastern end and into the bay. I had no command 
of the ship, the whirling current carried her along sometimes 
heading into the harbour, and sometimes looking out again, and 
at other times broadside to she would shoot rapidly ahead at 
the great risk of coming in contact with some of the numerous 
vessels that were in the same fix. 

I came to anchor in twenty-five fathoms three miles from the 
city, and it was not long before most of the passengers were 
raising the devil in Rio. 



CHAPTER IV. 

There were eight or ten other vessels in Rio Janeiro, bound 
to California with passengers, and the city authorities had no 
power to control them. The poor Brazilians had to bow before 
the independent rowdyism of these Yankee gold hunters. But 
they consoled themselves in the flippant way in which they found 
it easy to relieve Brother Jonathan of his present stock of what 
he was going in search of. 

In most of these ships there was difficulty between the cap- 
tains and their passengers, and the American Consul had taken it 
upon himself to displace some three or four commanders at the 
instigation of their passengers. But few men are of a suitable 
temperament to get along in such a position. Most of the diffi- 
culty on board these ships has been caused by the commander 
making too free with those under his charge, in the outset, drink- 
ing and playing cards with them, and by their familiarity lessen- 
ing their respect for his position, until some occasion has called 
for the exercise of his authority, when he has found that he had 
none. 

For myself I started with the determination to keep myself 
aloof as much as good manners would allow, treating every one 
with civility, but making free with none. I never took a card in 
my hand, though often solicited to do so. I suppose, at first, 
they thought that I was proud and stiff, but I believe they are 
now convinced of the propriety of my course, and I have no 
doubt I could fill all my vacant rooms with passengers from 
other ships, if they could get a portion of their passage money 
refunded. 

Mr. Davenport ran a great rig while in this port. When he 
first landed, he represented himself as the commander of the 
Alhambra and ran in debt everywhere. He hired a four-oared 
barge by the day, went on board the frigate Brandywine, and in- 
vited the officers to a dinner at a hotel, etc., etc. One morning 
as he was leaving the ship in his barge, I noticed that he had 

24 



RIO JANEIRO 25 

with him a daughter of Mrs. Bogert's, a girl of thirteen years, 
very pert and remarkably forward both physically and mentally. 
On my expressing to Mrs. B. my surprise at her allowing it, 
she spurned my advice. "Oh," said she, "Sarah is old enough 
to take care of herself." "Very well, madam, it is your own 
affair, not mine," I said. 

On the morning of my departure, a fleet of boats were along- 
side, all with bills made out against the Captain of the Alhambra, 
and when I was pointed out to them as that important individual, 
their physiognomies became suddenly elongated. Davenport had 
secreted himself, but I hunted the vagabond out, and brought 
him face to face with those he had imposed upon. Some of them 
threatened to have him taken out of the ship, and I told them 
they could not do me a greater favour. 

Rio Janeiro is a city of convents and monasteries, without 
much to interest a stranger, except the gardens in the outskirts 
and a grand aqueduct constructed upon the ancient Roman plan. 
The population (about seventy thousand) is a mixture of Euro- 
peans, North and South American negroes and Indians, with no 
small portion of mulattoes, the offspring of the Portuguese and 
their female slaves. These half-castes are generally an improve- 
ment upon their paternity physically and intellectually, and are 
decidedly the most enterprising and energetic of the inhabitants. 
The climate is warm and moist, and the produce of the country is 
always in season. Orchards of orange trees display a beautiful 
and fragrant temptation, the newly opened blossoms and the 
green and ripened fruit upon the same tree. 

Sunday, June 24. — Mr. William Higgins, chief mate of the 
ship, asked my permission to take the Widow Lathrop on shore 
and be married to her. I had previously received a hint of this 
from Mrs. Ladd, but I expressed surprise and strongly objected 
to the business. He said it was very well, and then asked my 
advice upon the matter. I told him plainly what I thought of 
her, and advised him to keep cool, and to watch his inamorata 
for the residue of the passage, and at San Francisco he could, 
of course, act his pleasure. He thanked me for my advice and 
said he should follow it, but not being willing to communicate 
to her my objection, he got Mrs. Ladd to break the matter. 



2 6 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

Now, Mrs. Lathrop was all rigged out for the job, anxious to 
part with her widow's weeds, and was taken all aback when she 
found I had forbidden the banns, but she affected the greatest 
astonishment to Mrs. Ladd, said she had no idea of such a thing, 
and asked Mrs. L. if she thought she could demean herself by 
marrying the mate of a ship. Now, Mr. Higgins was stand- 
ing outside of her stateroom, and when he heard that, he went 
in, and immediately there was a great flare-up. Mrs. Ladd left 
the room in disgust. The widow then altered her tone again, 
began to fondle and caress Higgins, and told him that he ought 
not to have said anything to me upon the subject. But he told 
her that his eyes were now opened, and that I had saved him 
from a life of misery. She flew into a great rage, called him a 
coward, ordered him to leave her room, and went off into a 
genteel fit of hysterics, and sent for the surgeon, who soon found 
that the best medicine for her was brandy. She shut herself 
up in her room, and did not make her appearance again till we 
arrived at Valparaiso. 

I took on board here a Capt. White of Baltimore, with his 
little Spanish wife. They were passengers on board the brig 
Arabian, but Capt. W. said there was so much disorder on board 
of her, that they could not go any further in her. His little 
woman, as he called her, was a bit of a thing, with a fair com- 
plexion, hair as black as jet and a sparkling black eye that indi- 
cated spunk, if it did not chastity. The immaculate widow soon 
found a fit associate in Mrs. White. 

While in Rio Janeiro we discovered that a plank in the ship's 
bow was in a bad state; it was a foot under water, and we were 
oblige to remove cargo from forward to aft to bring it out of 
water. The plank was gouged nearly through, probably done by 
the schooner's anchor in the Mississippi. Having repaired the 
damage and laid in a fresh supply of provisions and water, and 
left my letters for home, I started again on the 25th to make my 
way toward the much dreaded Cape Horn. 



CHAPTER V. 

I believe that nearly every one of my passengers has asked me 
if I have ever been "round the Cape." "Yes, often," is my reply, 
and so I have. I suppose I have passed Cape Cod fifty times. 
This is a matter that seems to them one of transcendent im- 
portance. I overheard a party of them conversing about it last 
evening, they seemed to be very anxious about it, till one of 
them remarked, "Well, if anybody can get safe round, our cap- 
tain can, for he belongs to Nantucket, and has been a whaling all 
his days," and this seemed to pacify them. So it seems "there is 
something in a name" sometimes. 

July ist. — The winds prevail from the western quarter, gen- 
erally about W. S. W. This day a brig was seen standing to the 
northwest upon the larboard tack, and I believe it is the unani- 
mous opinion of the "Committee on Navigation" that I ought 
to be on that tack, too. This committee have received an acces- 
sion in the person of a Capt. Huggins, who was one of the mas- 
ters displaced by the consul at Rio. He begged of me to take 
him along to San Francisco and merely from charity I took him 
at half price. He had taken the place of McDonald on board, 
and thought himself a big man. Thus my charity is once more 
appreciated. 

July 4th. — I was aroused at 3 a. m. by what I supposed was a 
row on deck. On going out to see what was to pay, I found it 
was but the beginning of the celebration. A parcel of wild ones 
had got on deck, with their liquor and their revolvers, and 
seemed determined to make a day of it. Taking them in season 
before the spirits began to operate, I convinced them of the 
impropriety of having their firearms about, and persuaded them 
to give them all up to me. They mounted an Alabama lawyer 
on the capstan, and he made an attempt at an oration. 

"Fellow Citizens by G — ," said he, "this, by G — , is the great- 
est day, by G — , that ever dawned, by G — , since the creation. 
We, by G — , are the great American people, by G — ," and so he 

27 



28 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

went on in this profane style, much to the gratification of his 
hearers, who often expressed their applause by shouting out, 
"Good, by G— ." 

They had already begun to make free use of the bottle, and 
insisted that I should join them. I thought it best to humour 
them on this occasion and proposing a suitable sentiment, we 
drank to "the memory of the heroes of the revolution." I then 
retired to my room, and was not again molested. I thought it 
best to keep myself in my own room, during the day, unless some 
disorder should call for my interference, which, I am happy to 
say, was not the case. The day was kept in an uproarious mani- 
festation of patriotism, three bouncing cheers were frequently 
shouted for freedom, liberty, Washington and particularly for 
"Old Hickory." Many of them got patriotically drunk, and 
were bundled into their berths. But we had no outbreak and the 
next morning all was quiet again. 

A Burial at Sea. 

July 6. — The expected event has arrived. Old Mr. Johnson 
breathed his last at midnight; he died without a struggle or a 
groan. Early this morning the corpse was sewed up in a new 
sheet and afterwards covered with canvas. At n a. m. it was 
laid on a smooth plank at the gangway, with a sufficient weight 
attached to the feet to cause it to sink rapidly. The ensign was 
set at half-mast. At noon all hands were summoned to attend 
the ceremony; the officers and crew were neatly and freshly 
clad; one mate and one man stood on each side of the plank. 
The mainsail was hauled up, the maintopsail laid aback, and the 
ship's headway stopped. 

The passengers being all assembled, I mounted the poop, and 
after saying a few words I read a short prayer, composed for the 
occasion, and requested any one who felt so disposed to improve 
the occasion to address his fellow voyagers. No one seemed so 
disposed. I then read the beautiful burial service from the 
Common Prayer Book. At the proper moment the men raised 
their end of the plank and the corpse slid gently into the sea 
and sank immediately. The sea was so transparent that the body 



FAULKLAND ISLANDS 29 

could be seen gyrating in its descent many fathoms down be- 
neath the surface. 

The widow, as in duty bound, gave a groan, and thus ended 
the ceremony. The ensign was run up to the peak, the main- 
topsail filled and the mainsail set, and the Alhambra started off 
again upon her course, leaving the mortal remains of the old 
gentleman to find their last resting place where his immortal soul 
had wished, in the pure blue ocean. 

July 7. — A remarkably fine day. The wind continues to blow 
steadily from the southwest and the atmosphere seems ethereal, 
but it could not heal the lungs of Mr. Johnson. 

But pure as is the air, it is thickened with innumerable clouds 
of locusts and the surface of the sea is literally covered with the 
dead and exhausted ; the ship's rigging had been recently freshly 
tarred, and millions upon millions of these insects, in seeking 
rest to their wearied wings, alighted upon the shrouds and back- 
stays and were done for. There they hang, their feet sticking 
fast to the green tar and their long wings extended and flutter- 
ing, making a noise like miniature coopers drumming around 
some quack doctor's pill boxes, but the poor things cannot extri- 
cate themselves from their impromptu trap. All day long army 
upon army of them darkened the air, and the topgallant back- 
stay swelled to the size of the mast it supports. An extraordi- 
nary phenomenon! We are in the latitude of Rio de la Plata, 
and these "cicada tettigonia" have been blown off the coast hun- 
dreds of miles by a "pampero," and were now on their return 
attracted to a fatal foothold, affording a moral which it would 
have been well if some of my married passengers had attended 
to in season, viz., "Look before you leap." 

The winds prevailed so much from southwest that I was 
obliged to pass to the eastward of the Faulkland Islands. Saw 
them on the 8th. They appear to be composed of volcanic rock, 
high, broken and barren; not a tree could be seen. When first 
discovered they were uninhabited, and have been colonized and 
abandoned several times ; at present they are claimed by the 
Buenos Ayres Government. 

Having passed to the south of them, we encountered a heavy 
gale from the southwest, which brought us down to double reefs, 



3° 



A PIONEER VOYAGE 



and eventually to a close reefed maintopsail and main spencer, 
under which sail we lay to twenty-four hours. The sea was 
exceedingly rough and the ship lay very uneasily. Every box 
and trunk among the passengers that was not securely lashed 
was pitching and tumbling about in admirable confusion, and 
there was a great time among them. 

In the height of this gale I had an unpleasant altercation with 
the surgeon of the ship, Doctor Haygarth of London. Like 
most cockneys, he was a vain, egotistical snob. He had ren- 
dered himself obnoxious to most of the passengers by his insuf- 
ferable insolence, always drawing some one of them into an 
argument, which never ended without his telling them that their 
arguments were foolish, preposterous or nonsensical. He had 
been surgeon on board English convict ships, and could not 
bring himself to a level with citizens of America. 

On this occasion he made some observations that induced me 
to remind him that he was talking to gentlemen; on which he 
flew into a violent rage and insulted me grossly. His conduct 
was so outrageous that the mate and some of the passengers 
advised putting him in irons, but I thought it best to treat him 
with silent contempt, determining, however, that if he did not 
make a suitable apology I would leave him at Valparaiso. 

July 10. — Mrs. Leon complained to me this morning that 
Mrs. Mordecai had insulted her, and insisted that I should talk 
to her; so I held a petticoat court martial. It appeared that 
their rooms were adjoining, and the row commenced about which 
of them made the most dirt. I settled the matter by directing 
Margaret (an Irish stewardess) to pay particular attention to 
these premises. "Faith," says Maggy, "It's sax o' one and half 
a dizen of tither, and the Tivel himself couldn't tell which of 
the two is the dirtiest." 

After the gale the wind came from the east, and gave us a 
fine run around the much-dreaded Cape Horn. I passed within 
two miles of Diego Ramirez (the large rocks lying eight leagues 
south of the southern extremity of Patagonia) . The lofty moun- 
tains of Terra del Fuego, land of fire, towered up awfully sub- 
lime in the distance, but the fire must have been extinguished 
by the immense quantities of snow now on the mountains, it 
being the southern winter. 



CAPE HORN 31 

Around these rocks the air was literally clouded with sea 
fowl, from the huge and stately albatross to the tiny petrel or 
Mother Carey's chicken, with pelicans, penguins, gulls and Cape 
pigeons. The albatross sails gracefully above the others, appar- 
ently without moving his wings; he is exceedingly voracious, 
following ships with his head turned, so as to keep one eye on 
the lookout for the waste thrown over by the cook. He is easily 
caught with a hook baited with pork ; he seizes the bait, and 
the hook catches in the lower mandible, and he is hauled in, 
struggling with great force to escape. 

I caught several, one fellow whose wings measured ten feet 
across. When landed on deck he showed fight, and it was dan- 
gerous to come within reach of his wings or beak. Doc. Tappe's 
fat black sleek dog attempted it and received a snap that sent 
him off howling in double contralto, and gave the Doctor an op- 
portunity to practice his profession, the only one he had during 
the voyage. The bird was unable to rise ; every time he at- 
tempted it his wings came in contact with the deck before he 
could exert their power to raise his body and gain an impetus. 
After amusing myself with him for an hour I ordered him to be 
raised from the deck by two sailors, when he darted off like a 
rocket, but still kept sailing round, looking down upon us with 
scorn, seeming to say, "Try it again, my hearties, you don't catch 
this bird any more." 

The Cape pigeons are caught in the same way, and some say 
they make a good pigeon pie, but if so it must be made by a 
double refined French "cuisinier." My cook could not neutralize 
the abominable rankness of the flesh. 

The pelican is nearly as large as the albatross ; he has a 
monstrous bill with a bag or pouch hanging to the lower man- 
dible capable of carrying food sufficient for two or three days. 
He brays like an ass or squawks like a peacock. He lives prin- 
cipally upon fish, which, if an unlucky one comes near the sur- 
face, he will dart down upon from a great height and seize with 
unerring aim ; perhaps the poor fish is charmed as some snakes 
are said to fascinate small animals. These birds are gregarious : 
there were apparently many millions of them around these rocks. 

The little petrel dances upon the water with its webbed feet, 



32 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

and wings always spread. This interesting little species is met 
with in all latitudes and is particularly active in stormy weather. 
The different inhabitants of Diego Ramirez must be conserva- 
tive, and respect the rights of others, or they could not live 
together in a country so small. Would that creation's lord could 
learn a lesson from them! 

Cape Horn is a bugbear; I had rather double it five times 
in winter than to come out the English channel once in Decem- 
ber or January. In two days after passing the rocks I had ad- 
vanced to the west far enough to shape a course for Valparaiso. 



CHAPTER VI. 

July 22. — Yesterday we had a heavy gale from northwest. 
At 4 p. m. I laid the ship to with the larboard tacks on board, 
head to the northeast. At midnight the wind veered more north- 
erly, and I hove ship and laid her head to the northwest, the 
coast of Chili being about seventy-five miles distant by chronom- 
eter. 

About 2 a. m. there was the "devil to pay" among the pas- 
sengers. One of the "Committee on Navigation" (Chase) had 
spread a report that we were on a lee shore, and could not keep 
off till morning. He said that when it lightened he could see the 
surf breaking awfully upon the rocks not more than two miles 
to leeward. It was in vain that I assured them that we were 
more than fifty miles from land, that even if it was as Chase 
said, we could not possibly run ashore as the wind was and as 
the ship was driving. Finding that they would not listen to 
me, I went to bed and left them to enjoy their consternation. 
Some of them sat up till morning, by which time the weather 
had cleared up, and not even the tops of the mountains could 
be seen from aloft. 

On this occasion the ungrateful Captain Higgins made him- 
self conspicuous in increasing the turmoil, and I was obliged to 
give him a piece of my mind ; for this I was well prepared, hav- 
ing learned more about him from the Consul at Rio Janeiro 
than he was aware of. 

August io. — Twenty days have passed without any occur- 
rence worthy of note. Passengers have nothing to do but eat 
and sleep and growl at the length of the days and the nights, 
too. What a drawback to human happiness is this abominable 
ennui ! If it was an original element in human nature the Crea- 
tor could not have inflicted a greater curse on Father Adam 
than to have left him in the Garden of Eden to live without 
labour and eat of the fruits of the earth that grew spontaneously 
about him. I am now standing up the coast to the north. 

33 



34 



A PIONEER VOYAGE 



The schooner Friendship is in sight; she is also from New 
Orleans and bound to San Francisco. This schooner left under 
another master, about three weeks ahead of us, but I found her 
at Rio, and we left that port together. When seen this morning 
she was in shore of us (land in sight about ten leagues distant), 
and took the land breeze and shot ahead out of sight, much to 
the discomfort of some of my uneasy passengers, who said she 
would reach Valparaiso two days before us. I took no notice of 
their remarks, but I authorized Mr. Moss (supercargo) to ac- 
cept bets on my account to the amount of fifty dollars on the 
question which vessel would first come to anchor in Valparaiso. 
The Andes (backbone of South America) are visible, covered 
with snow, towering above the clouds. 



"The married state, with and without the affection suited to 
it, is the completest image of Heaven or Hell we are capable of 
forming in this life." — Spectator. 

If this be true, then must the Alhambra be the "completest 
image" of the latter — a hell upon the ocean. Among all my 
married passengers there are but three couples that do not have 
their matrimonial outbreaks. The most of them came on board 
as sweet as Muscovado molasses, but excessive sweetness often 
turns to the most acrid acerbity, and so it has been with my 
saccharine subjugates. Cape Horn has frozen all the love out 
of them. Two months' "close communion" in a small stateroom 
has caused the molasses to ferment, and fermentation always 
changes to vinegar. 

As to Mr. Bogert and Company, they have had a regular 
matrimonial set-to, and have sat apart, at least for the residue 
of the passage, and she has taken to one of the vacant rooms 
between decks. 

"In company they are in purgatory, 
When only together they are in a hell." 

— Addison's description of the vexatious 

life in matrimony. 

August 1 6. — Fine weather, with a fresh breeze from the 
south, steering north under all sail, including studding sails. At 



A WAGER 35 

meridian saw the lighthouse on the promontory that forms the 
western boundary of the bay of Valparaiso. At the same time 
discovered the schooner Friendship between us and the coast; 
she was also under full sail, and we went dashing along in fine 
style together. It was questionable how the bets would result. 
As we drew near the promontory she began to shorten sail, 
and we got ahead and rounded the point with studding sails set, 
a cable's length ahead. The people on shore were astonished 
to see a ship come dashing in under such a press of canvas (so 
the Harbour Master told me), but I had got every halyard 
ready to run in a moment. 

On hauling into the bay, and bringing the wind abeam, the 
schooner had the advantage and came up alongside. I foresaw 
that the captain of the schooner would make two or three tacks 
to gain a good berth to anchor, a thing which I could not do 
on account of the size of my ship and her draft of water. I 
had this in view when I fixed the bets on the question as to 
which vessel would first come to anchor. While the schooner 
was thus occupied in beating up, the captain of the port came 
on board the ship and ordered the anchor to be let go. The 
bettors looked glum, but promptly paid up. 

While we were at supper there was a mutiny broke out in 
the deck house. Messrs. Lane and Bogert have come to pistols 
and bowie knives. At the supper table Bogert accused Mrs. 
Lane with having slandered him to his wife and thus alienating 
her affections! Fudge! she had no affections to alienate. But 
that is no excuse for Mrs. Lane. 

Now Mrs. L. was not the woman to be talked to. The battle 
of tongues was altogether in her favour. Tongues ! good gra- 
cious, why, that little piece of india rubber belonging to her 
would annihilate a dozen Bogerts. He saw that, and as soon 
as he could get a word in edgeways he bawled out "Virago." At 
this quiet Mr. Lane felt himself called upon to resent the insult, 
and soon the screams and squalls of women and children from 
that house which was to have been the abode of peace announced 
the outbreak. 

I was called upon to suppress the mutiny, and found Bogert 
flourishing a large bowie knife, and Mr. Lane prepared to de- 



36 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

fend himself with a revolver. I succeeded in arranging a truce, 
and persuaded the combatants to give me their weapons, but I 
could not refrain from cautioning Mrs. Lane to be more circum- 
spect in future, and telling her that her imprudence might have 
caused the death of her husband. As usual, this row was all 
about the women. 

I found in Valparaiso several passenger ships bound to Cali- 
fornia, and the great number of Americans on shore at one time 
seemed to nationalize the town. Yankees did just as they pleased 
and the city authorities were powerless to restrain them; but 
the great California emigration has been a godsend to this place, 
and they can well put up with the Yankee dare-devil spirit for 
the sake of the Yankee gold. 

Everything in the line of provisions has advanced fifty per 
cent. In the staple article of flour California has opened a new 
and extensive demand, and hundreds of acres are now in wheat 
where last year was nothing but weeds and thistles. 

Valparaiso is a singularly romantic place. A spur from the 
Andes shoots out to the coast and ends at the promontory where 
stands the lighthouse. The debris from this spur has formed a 
narrow strip of low and level ground, where stands the city, or 
rather a portion of the city. The residences of the wealthy are 
fantastically built on the sides of the hill, the back sides of many 
of them standing on piles ten to twenty feet high, looking as 
though a slight commotion would set them tumbling down hill, 
like a child's village of houses of cards. 

There are three sugar loaf cones in the western part of the 
town; these are called in sailor's language the fore, main and 
mizzen tops; they are all occupied by sailors' boarding houses, 
brothels and grog shops. 

There are a few streets well laid and of good width, and the 
stores and mercantile houses are large, commodious and well 
built. There is a very good library and reading room open 
and free to all strangers. The harbour or bay is a crescent, open 
to the north. 

In the eastern quarter is the Almendral, a delightful drive 
and promenade evenings, and is the general resort for all classes. 
Here the sparkling black eyes of the signoritas dart their bewitch- 



AN INVESTIGATION 37 

ing glances through the meshes of their thin gauze headdress, 
which, with their graceful demeanor, their superb carriage 
and elegant movement, seem to make them appear as ethereal 
beings or fairies. The intelligence, deep feeling, fidelity and con- 
stancy of the Spanish ladies is proverbial, and their descendants 
in America have lost nothing of these qualities. 

The American Consul, William G. Moorhead, Esq., occupies 
the most conspicuous residence in town. It is on the extreme 
edge of a plateau, jutting out from the mountain, and looks down 
upon the lower town over a precipice three hundred feet high ; 
here the Stars and Stripes are kept flying from morning till 
night, the symbol of power and liberty. 

Having waited two days in expectation that the surgeon 
would leave of his own accord, and finding he had no intention 
of doing so, I requested Mr. Moorhead to make an investigation 
into his conduct and advise me how to proceed; his report and 
certificate is here annexed. He told the doctor that he had ren- 
dered himself liable to punishment as a mutineer, and said that 
I should be justified either in putting him on shore or in taking 
him along in irons. I chose the former course, and the next 
morning I sent him the following note: "Sir. Another person 
is appointed as surgeon of this ship, and you are required forth- 
with to vacate the room you now occupy. A boat will be in 
readiness at 12 o'clock to convey your baggage to any place you 
desire." 

An investigation before the United States Consul at Val- 
paraiso ON THE l6TH OF AUGUST, 1849, AT TH E INSTANCE OF 

George Coffin, Esq., Master of the Ship "Alhambra/' 
in relation to the conduct of Dr. G. B. Haygarth, sur- 
geon on board the said ship. 

Captain S. Scott, a passenger on the " Alhambra," was called 
and duly sworn, who stated that the surgeon, Dr. G. B. Hay- 
garth, called the Captain (in his hearing) a double or treble 
refined humbug, that he did not understand his business, and 
that he would teach him his business. The Captain ordered 
him to leave the door of his cabin, before which he was stand- 
ing, which he refused, when the Captain directed the carpenter 



38 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

who was near the door to shut it, whereupon the said Dr. Hay- 
garth struck a blow with his fist, as I suppose, at the Captain's 
face, but as the carpenter warded off the blow by pushing the 
door to close it, the blow did not take effect, but grazed the 
side of his face. The above occurred some four weeks ago — 
thought at the time, and now think, that the conduct of the said 
Haygarth was very improper and insubordinate. 

Mr. Samuel Morse, a passenger in the said ship, was called 
and sworn, who stated that he occupied a stateroom in the Cap- 
tain's cabin, was standing near on the outside of the door when 
his attention was arrested by a discussion between the Captain 
and the surgeon; heard the said Dr. Haygarth say to Captain 
Coffin that he was a double refined humbug. The Captain or- 
dered him to leave his door, which he refused to do. The Cap- 
tain thereupon directed the carpenter, who was near, to close 
the door, and while in the act of so doing the said Haygarth 
struck a blow with his fist, evidently at some object within the 
room, when he (the declarant) assisted the carpenter in taking 
the said Haygarth from the door. On the same day heard the 
said Haygarth say to the Captain that he did not understand 
his business, that he had sailed longer on board of American 
vessels than he, the said Captain, had. The conduct of the said 
Haygarth was mutinous and offensive in the highest degree, so 
much so that if he, the declarant, had been in command of the 
ship he would have placed him in irons. There were some fif- 
teen of the passengers present at the time of this occurrence. 

Mr. O. Ladd, also a passenger in the said ship Alhambra, 
was called, and being duly sworn declared: That he heard Dr. 
Haygarth say to Captain Coffin that he did not know his duty, 
and that he could make him do it. The Captain said, "How will 
you do that?" to which the said Haygarth replied, "I know how 
and will do it. I have not lived in New Orleans so long without 
learning how to make you do it," intimating thereby, as declar- 
ant understood, that he might resort to foul means to do it; 
heard the Captain order him to leave his door, etc., etc. Had no 
fault to find with Captain Coffin, found him always ready and 
willing to accommodate the passengers. There were some twenty 
or more persons present at the time the difficulty occurred be- 



THE SURGEON LEAVES 39 

tween the Captain and Dr. Hay garth near the door of the Cap- 
tain's cabin. 

Given under my hand and the seal of the Consulate at Val- 
paraiso this sixteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord 
One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty-nine. 

Wm. G. Moorhead, 

Consul U. S. A. 

At 11 a. m. — I sent my steward down to see if he had made 
any preparation for going; he had not done so, and sent me no- 
tice that he should not leave the ship except by force. "Very 
well, sir, then let it be by force," said I. At 8 bells I directed 
the mate to take two seamen and bring his boxes up on deck. 
They then dragged him along to the ladder and two more reach- 
ing down seized him by the collar and drew him up the booby 
hatch like a hunted wolf from his lair. When on deck he stretched 
himself up in his pomposity (he stood six feet high and was 
a very powerful athletic person), and said to me, "Sir, I shall 
hold you responsible for this treatment," and he called upon the 
passengers to take notice that he did not leave of his own will. 
I. told him I very well knew that, for he left her at my free 
will ; that I was well advised as to the steps I was taking and 
was prepared to take the consequence. I then told the mate 
to go on and obey my orders. The doctor saw a whip hanging 
from the main yard and concluded he had better go without any 
further resistance. 

As the boat was leaving the ship the passengers prepared 
to give him three cheers, but I requested them not to insult him 
in his fallen condition. 

This affair has caused me some uneasiness. I knew that he 
had no means, and I gave the mate two doubloons to hand to him 
when on shore, if he would accept. If he had shown any desire 
for reconciliation or had made the least apology the difficulty 
might easily have been settled ; but in the situation in which I 
was placed I considered it my duty to make an example of the 
first case of insubordination. 

I was also much relieved by getting rid of rowdy Stebbins 
in this place ; he had got into a row with some of the passengers, 
at one of the dens of infamy, and thought best to quit, and ex- 



4 o A PIONEER VOYAGE 

changed with Captain N. Newel, a passenger in the brig Canoni- 
cus. 

I also discharged my chief steward for incompetency and 
waste, and gave the situation to Mr. John Barker, who, with his 
wife, was a passenger in the Ocean Queen from Liverpool. And 
having replenished my stock of water, provisions and fuel, I left 
Valparaiso on the 20th of August, in company with the clipper 
ship S. G. Owens of Baltimore, and the barque Montgomery, 
another Baltimore clipper, all bound for the new gold regions. 
The Widow Lathrop now came out fresh and new, and resumed 
her seat at table at my right hand. She took especial care to 
look neat and tidy, and to a stranger might appear a modern 
Octavia. 



CHAPTER VII. 

For some time past I have contemplated the issue of a weekly 
magazine on board, as one means of counteracting the effects of 
ennui among my large family. I fondly thought that the pro- 
ject would meet with much favour, but it did not take. At last 
I have persuaded Mr. Moss and Doctor Baldwin, the new sur- 
geon, to stand as editors, and some half a dozen of the pro- 
fessional portion of the passengers to contribute; but from 
their apathy I foresee that the "onus" of the thing will devolve 
upon me. Well, I have already on hand a good supply of mate- 
rial and shall find amusement in hunting up more. 

On Saturday, August 23rd, appeared the first number of "The 
Emigrant." It consisted of two sheets of foolscap, closely writ- 
ten out in full, by Mr. Moss. The editorial debut was from the 
pen of the Doctor, and was a very good opening. I had to 
furnish one-half the reading matter, and among my contributions 
was the following doggerel, suggested by the appearance and 
conduct of some of the green ones on board: 

Simon Spriggins' Trip to California. 



As late at home I sat one night, 
Reading alone by candle light, 

The little Orleannais* 
A story chanced to meet my eyes, 
Exciting wonder and surprise, 

Of gold in California. 

I went to bed and dreamed of gold, 
I waked a valiant knight and bold, 

Strong nerved with firm bravado. 
Says I, I'm off in the first ship, 
On an experimental trip, 

To glorious "El Dorado." 



♦Pronounced Orleannia. 

41 



42 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

But then I thought of friends and home, 
And all the trials that must come 

In rounding Patagonia. 
No matter! Gold's the talisman, 
Would lighten all the risk I run 

In reaching California. 

So off I packed, and in good time 

The fine old ship, though passed her prime, 

Safe doubled round Cape Frio. 
Straight on her course she held her way, 
And safe and sound on the next day 

She landed me in Rio. 

There those rapacious Portuguese, 
With tricks of trade they did me fleece. 

Scarce leaving me a. stiver. 
And glad was I once more to find 
Our ship at sea with a fair wind, 

Which speedily did drive her 

Up to that awful tempest-torn, 

That blustering, stormy, cold Cape Horn, 

When bang! came a sou- wester. 
The old ship reeled and rocked about, 
I thought she'd turn me inside out, 

Good gracious! how I blessed her. 

That storm passed by, one pleasant day, 
Our ship pursuing still her way, 

We passed Diego Ramirez. 
Once more I grew so brave and bold, 
Like Richard Third we read of old, 

Myself again I am, I says. 

That dreadful stormy Cape is passed, 
And steering north we're driving fast, 

And straight towards Valparaiso, 
Where we propose to stop once more, 
And, passing time 'twixt ship and shore, 

To spend a jovial day or so. 



MORE ADVICE 43 

I thought, in knowing how to cheat, 
No people on God's earth could beat 

Those gentlemen Brazilians; 
But now my words I must recall, 
For faith, they're nothing after all 

Compared with these keen Chilians. 

Once more at sea fair winds now blow, 
With flowing sail straight on we go 

Directly for the diggin's. 
When once I'm there, with golden ore 
I'll fill my saddlebags, as sure 

As I am Simon Spriggins. 

The first number of "The Emigrant" was well received, 
the reading matter was various, to please all tastes, and the 
croakers were silenced. 

August 28. — The southeast trade wind is blowing steadily, 
and the old Alhambra is dashing along with all sail set, num- 
bering in all twenty-five. On leaving Valparaiso I shaped 
the course so as to pass the Equator in about Long, no de- 
grees. This is wrong in the opinion of the learned Committee 
on Navigation. They have got among them a chart of the Pa- 
cific Ocean, and they tell those who will listen to them (the 
number of whom is small and daily growing less), that I ought 
to keep nearer the coast, and cross the Equator near the Gala- 
pagos Islands. They say that Captain Jones in the Montgom- 
ery told them he intended to call at those islands and take in 
a supply of land terrapin, with which those places abound. 
And they had no doubt he would be in San Francisco a fort- 
night before us, "Nous verrons," again said I. 

After dinner I threw overboard an empty wine bottle con- 
taining a slip of paper with the following memorandum (my 
rhyming propensity would not let it go without a squib) : 
"Some antiquated sage hath said, 
When speaking of the human head, 
That wit goes out when wine goes in, 
'Twas doubtless so with this black bottle, 
For through its dark and narrow throttle 
The wine ran out and I've got in. 



44 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

I am bound on an experimental cruise for the purpose of 
ascertaining the set and drift of the current, having taken my 
departure from the good ship Alhambra from New Orleans 
bound to San Francisco with passengers, Lat. 13 15' South, 
Long. 90 20' West, August 28, 1849, — a H wen< on board. Who- 
ever may pick up this document, is earnestly requested to send 
it to Lieut. MaUry at Washington, U. S. A. 

Geo. Coffin, 

Master of Ship Alhambra." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Saturday, Aug. 30. — The second number of "The Emigrant" 
appeared promptly this morning. So great was the desire to 
get hold of it, that it was voted that one of the passengers should 
read it aloud to the rest. They selected Doct. Clark as the 
reader; he was just out of a Medical College, a very unassum- 
ing young man, who, it appears to me, has mistaken his pro- 
fession. He should be a minister, his modesty would not do for 
a doctor. He placed himself on the capstan, and the rest of the 
company gathered round, some standing, others seated about on 
spare spars, water casks, or whatever else they could find. 

The newspaper contained a masterly communication of his 
own, in which in a style of the keenest satire and yet in such 
language as not to give individual offense, he cut up the gamblers, 
and completely demolished the "Committee on Navigation." 
Among my contributions to this number, is a letter from Simon 
Spriggins to his wife, induced by the favor with which Simon's 
trip to California was received. One of the ladies on board told 
me that that was not original, she had read it before somewhere, 
but she could not tell where. As Simon's letter was read, all 
hands applauded, and the well read lady confessed that she had 
made a mistake. 

Simon Spriggins' Letter to His Wife. 



Oh, Nancy dear, how many a tear, 
Since last we parted, have I shed. 

I fancy you are crying too, 

Oh, dear, we might as well be dead. 

What tempted me to come to sea? 

I knew not what I was about. 
Alack a day, what shall I say? 

Oh, that I'd taken some other route! 

45 



4 6 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

Confound the trip! in this old ship 

My life is never safe a day. 
About my ears, to rouse my fears, 

Some broken spar is sure to play. 

And then these gales, my spirit fails, 

To think the sea may be my tomb. 
Besides that leak! How can I speak 

Of that and not remember home? 

Home! dear, sweet home! why did I roam 
Away from you and my own Nancy? 

To eat, oh grief ! salt pork and beef, 

For such coarse food I have no fancy. 

I thought not once, I'd be five months 

Upon this California trip. 
Oh, what a fool, a "tarnal fool," 

To trust myself on this old ship! 

If safe on shore, I get once more, 

Not all the gold in Feather River 
Could me induce, another cruise 

Like this to undertake, no, never. 

Now, Nancy dear, dry up that tear, 
Remember you're my precious diamond, 

And I'll prove true to none but you, 
I am your faithful, loving Simon. 

September ist. — A pleasant day, wind westerly. At daylight 
this morning a ship was discovered on our weather beam steer- 
ing the same course as ourselves. As soon as I had looked at 
her with my glass, I pronounced her to be the 5". G. Owens. 
"Poh!" says one. "That be hanged," says another. "Capt. 
Barclay knows better than to take this route," said a third. 
"The S. G. O. is a thousand miles ahead," said the fourth. 
When they had all had their say, "Nous verrons," again said I, 
"and that right soon too," for I perceived that she was bearing 
down for us. She fell into our wake about a mile astern and 
sure enough it was the Susan G. Owens. 

For four hours we had a most interesting trial of speed. 



A TRIAL OF SPEED 47 

The passengers all seemed to forget their ennui and ceased 
grumbling. Sometimes the Owens would gain her length or so, 
and then when the breeze would reach the Alhambra she would 
at once resume her distance ahead, and then a shout would arise 
loud enough to frighten the dolphins and startle Old Nep. him- 
self. 

Towards noon I perceived them lowering their boat, and laid 
by for them to come up. Capt. Barclay and some of his passen- 
gers paid us a visit and staid to dinner. I could perceive that the 
Captain felt mortified. It seemed he had told his passengers in 
the morning that he could beat this old tub and spare his top- 
gallantsails ; so he ran down to show them the sport, and they 
kept joking him about his mistake. 

They remained on board till 4 p. m., by which time their 
ship was three miles on our lee quarter, and I was obliged to 
stop my ship's headway for them to get on board their own 
craft. Three hearty cheers were exchanged and we parted, and 
the next morning she was hull down astern and I anticipate a 
little to say that I reached San Francisco two days before her, 
and had been there ten days when the Montgomery came in. 

Sept. 4th. — Pleasant weather, sea as smooth as glass. It is 
a common remark whenever an extravagant story is told, "Oh, 
that's a fish story," whatever may have been its origin, it may 
be thought applicable to the story I am about to relate. The 
dolphin (Coryphaena hippuris) is the most beautiful of all fishes; 
when caught and lying in the sun, the colours of its skin are 
changeable violet, green, yellow, blue, orange and red ; it is the 
marine chameleon. Ye ladies, your most costly silks are not to 
be compared with the fish Coryphaena hippuris. 

A school of them have been about the ship for several days 
past. Yesterday I threw the grains (an instrument with five 
barbed prongs) into one of the largest; the instrument tore out 
nearly the whole of one side of the fish, which came up adher- 
ing to the prongs, but it did not reach a vital part, as the other 
half of the fish still kept swimming along with the rest of the 
school. They were cannibals for occasionally one would come 
alongside of the wounded one, and snap off a piece of the raw 
body, still the poor thing kept swimming along and kept his 



48 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

ground with the others. This morning they were still sailing 
along beautifully on the quarter and among them the wounded 
one. I watched an opportunity and succeeded in transfixing the 
other half with the grains, and thus ended his misery. Fish 
eats fish, the dolphin is the greatest enemy of the flying fish. 

The southeast trade wind grows lighter every day, and is 
now very faint. Lat. 2°, 45' So., Long. 108 °, 30' West. 

Sept. 5th. — I have now reached again the equatorial region. 
As in the Atlantic, so here, the revolution of the earth from west 
to east causes the great currents of air which flow from the 
poles, to acquire a westerly direction within the tropics. As 
these trade winds approach the Equator, it becomes a question 
which shall prevail, they have each the same driving power be- 
hind, and cannot retreat. What shall they do? They stand 
still, facing one another, and it is a dead calm, and then up 
they go, they ascend to higher regions, where the earth's revo- 
lutionary influence is less, and then they spread to restore the 
equilibrium. 

Well, here I am now within the field of this silent battle of 
the winds; sometimes a thundering black cloud will come driv- 
ing along, darting forth the most intensely vivid forks of light- 
ning, and looking as though it was going to blow the Alhambra 
out of water, but it is all rain, and rain it is with a vengeance. 
For two days past I have experienced a southerly set of current. 
Although I have made twenty miles of northing each day by 
reckoning, yet my observations place me a few miles south of 
my position on the preceding day. 

I wonder how it would do to adopt the plan of the Irish 
schoolboy, whose teacher took him to task one day for being 
late at school. "Now, Maester dear," said he, "dinna be angry, 
and I'll tell ye jest all about it. Ye see, sir, the rains have made 
the bogs so slippery that I could not come along, for every step 
I took ahead I slipt back two." "Arrah now, ye spalpeen," said 
the master, "and dinna ye call that a lie, if for every step ye took 
forard ye slipt back two, it's at hum ye'd be this blessed minit." 
"That's jest what I thought meself, yer honer, and so, ye see, I 
turned me back to the schulus and made believe 'twas going hum 
I was, and that's the way I cum'd here at all at all." "Away 
with ye to yer stool," said the pedagogue. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Sept. 6th. — The third number of "The Emigrant" appeared 
this day with the following editorial and what follows: We 
have received and publish another of our friend Simon's effu- 
sions. We are sorry to perceive that he appears to be growing 
lugubrious, and somewhat given to despair, but we hope the 
malady is only temporary and that he will soon be "himself 
again." — Editors. 

Simon Spriggins' Soliloquy. 



What's this absorbs my everlasting thought, 

And makes me dream so wildly? Can it be 

That I have left my comfortable home 

In search of golden shadows, but to meet 

With cruel disappointment? I can dig 

As well as most men. Shovel, pick and hoe, 

All these I have, and my stout, stalwart arm 

Can wield them on occasion. There's the rub — 

Occasion may not offer — false accounts 

Of lumps of gold and glittering golden sands 

Have made me quit my Nancy but to die 

And leave my bones upon the Sacramento. 

Would I were back again! I'd till the soil, 

And dig potatoes, or I'd drive a cart, 

And earn my gold more slowly but more sure. 

Fate! what a fool thou 'st made of me, but then 

A lesson hard I've learned and I'll improve it. 

By the first ship I'm off for Panama, 

Make tracks across the isthmus, and the first 

Ship, brig or schooner up for Panama 

Shall take me there once more, 

And California to the Devil may go. 

49 



5 o A PIONEER VOYAGE 



An Enigma. 

I am a word composed of eight letters. My first and second 
express a man ; my third, fourth and fifth an animal. Put these 
together and I am still a brute of the male species. Now, take 
away my first and second and add my sixth and I am again 
human, and the name of a Roman hero and philosopher. Then 
drop my third and add my seventh and this ancient hero loses 
his humanity and dwindles to the minutest particle. Lastly from 
this particle drop my fourth and add my eighth and you come 
to the last resting place of all flesh. Altogether I am a san- 
guinary monster. What am I? 

i 2345678 
[Answer.— HECATOMB.] 

Advertisement. — Wanted a few degrees of north latitude. 
Any person being able to furnish them shall be installed an 
honorary member of the Committee on Navigation. Apply at 
the Surgeon's office. 

From this time "The Emigrant" languished for want of sus- 
tenance, it did not appear on the next Saturday. It made one 
more effort on Saturday, Sept. 20th, and then gave up the ghost. 
The editorial valedictory had some reference to "casting pearls 
before swine," etc. Simon Spriggins was the last to give up, 
as may be seen from the following from the last number of the 
paper : 

Editors of "The Emigrant," Gents: I have to thank you 
for giving publicity to my lucubrations in your widely circulat- 
ing and most valuable miscellany. But I am sorry to perceive 
from your paper of the 6th, that you have applied to me such 
an outlandish term "Lugubrious." What does it mean? I can- 
not find it in my dictionary. I would be glad to make a rhyme 
to it, but I know no word in the English language that will 
jingle with it. 

Yours, Simon Spriggins. 

P. S. — Oh, yes, there is one ! So here goes ! 



A RIDDLE 51 

Simon Is Himself Again. 



"The Emigrant" calls me "Lugubrious," 

And says I'm given to despair, 
But there is something so salubrious 

In this cool bracing northern air 
That hope elastic spreads her wings, 
And stretching forward, thus she sings: 

Rouse up, friend Simon ! Why so sad ? 

Your voyage is up, away with fear! 
The old Alhambra's not so bad, 

And golden California's near. 

Your saddle bags shall yet be filled 

With Sacramento's glittering ore. 
Your doubts and fears shall all be still'd 

And trouble come not near you more. 

Then back to Nancy you shall go, 

Imagine with what rapturous bliss 
With circling arms she'll fold you — so, 

And, gracious heavens, what a kiss ! 

So soft, so fragrant! such a wife 

Shall make you all your toils forget, 
She'll sweeten all your after-life 

And you'll be happy Simon yet. 

A Riddle. 
[From "The Emigrant."] 

When Van Amburg's caravan entered Boston, he had a 
phaeton drawn by ten horses, and these horses had but twenty- 
four legs altogether, and yet they had as many legs as other 
horses ; how could that be ? 

This riddle puzzled my passengers every day for a week, the 



52 



A PIONEER VOYAGE 



female portion in particular. I was teased for an explanation 
every evening. After a week had passed, and "The Emigrant" 
had died out, I was induced to relieve their anxiety. "Ladies," 
I said, "horses have each two fore legs and two hind legs, con- 
sequently ten horses have twenty fore and twenty hind legs, and 
so the mystery was unfolded." 

The northeast trade winds hung so far north, that I was 
driven to Long. 138 W., when the trade left me in Lat. 28 
North on the 26th Sept. From that time I had light and vari- 
able winds mostly from north to northwest. 

On breaking into the after-hold to get at a reserve of water, 
I was startled to find half of the casks empty. I therefore 
thought it proper to put all hands upon allowance, and posted up 
the following notice on a bulletin board which was kept at the 
front of the cabin throughout the passage, to inform the passen- 
gers daily of the ship's progress. 

"In consequence of the loss of a large portion of our water 
and the continued prevalence of head winds, I have thought it 
necessary to place a restriction on the too free use of what water 
remains. Three quarts is the daily allowance in the navy, and is 
found to be ample. I propose to serve out three pints to each 
individual reserving three pints in the steward's keeping for 
culinary purposes. Passengers will provide themselves with 
vessels and attend to the delivery at 4 p. M." 

Contrary to my expectations, this proposition was received 
with favour, and gave much satisfaction; everybody had water 
enough and some did not use their three pints. 

I continued to struggle on, tantalized with light head winds 
and calms, always keeping the ship on the tack which would 
place her head nearest my port, and on the afternoon of the 
10th of October the coast range of the mountains of California 
came in sight. The night following was calm. At daylight a 
breeze set in from southwest. 



CHAPTER X. 

Saturday, Oct. nth. — I am now standing in for my port, and 
I have no chart to guide me. A chart of this coast was not to 
be had in New Orleans, and I sent to New York, but there was 
none to be had there. Messrs. Blunt had parted with their last, 
without taking a lithographic copy. And the charts of Govern- 
ment, which should have been the result of the famous explor- 
ing expedition some ten years since, have not yet been made 
available for the navigator. Shame! eternal shame on the exist- 
ing Government! Had these charts been a guide to political 
distinction of your party, would there have been any delay? 
Whig or Tory, you deserve the execration of every American. 

I tried at Rio, and at Valparaiso, but the great demand had 
swept away the whole. As a last resort I applied on board the 
British frigate Inconstant at Valparaiso. They had none to 
spare, but the sailing master kindly drew me off a hasty sketch 
of the approaches to San Francisco, and this was all the guide 
I had. 

At 3 p, m., civil time, I got sight of a mountain that forms 
the northern boundary of the entrance to the bay, a fog bank 
was coming in from seaward. At 4 p. m. I could discern the 
headlands that bound the "Golden Gate" on each side, and plac- 
ing my best helmsman at the wheel, I stationed myself on the 
topgallant forecastle, and shaped my course for Fort point, the 
southern boundary. The fog came along, and with it came the 
session of the Committee on Navigation. I stood on with con- 
fidence. 

About 6 p. m., Cumstock came forward, and servilely saying 
he hoped I should not take offense, "but did I not think I was 
too far south, it was the opinion of some of the passengers that 
the harbour was further north." I told him to go to the devil, 
and give my compliments to his associates and tell them to 
follow him. 

While I was yet blowing him up, I got sight of my landmark 

53 



54 



A PIONEER VOYAGE 



directly ahead half a mile distant. We put the helm slightly 
to starboard, the ship veered gently to the northeast, and a 
rapid flood tide swept the ship in through the "Golden Gate." 
Having advanced about one mile and finding good anchorage in 
ten fathoms, came to for the night. The passengers gathered 
around me with congratulations, and I believe, if I had possessed 
a taste for it, I might have received a warm embrace from every 
lady on board. Three lusty cheers were given for Capt. Coffin, 
and the Committee on Navigation was unanimously voted a 
humbug and a nuisance. 

The next morning found that we were at the entrance of a 
magnificent bay extending to the eastward beyond the horizon 
and from three to five miles wide. Saw four or five ships at 
anchor in the southeast about five miles, and a number of tents 
pitched upon the hills around. A high steep promontory on the 
south shore presented a picturesque aspect, on all sides were 
distant mountains, the cove of Yerba Buena was hidden by the 
promontory. 

At 8 a. m. hove up the anchor, and kedged the ship up on 
the flood tide in a calm. Ship after ship came in sight as we 
advanced, opening out by the promontory, until having arrived 
abreast of it, the nucleus of the future capital of the Pacific 
came fully in view, forming a semicircular cove about one mile 
across and half a mile deep, bounded by a high bold headland on 
each side, with a cordon of high sand hills clothed with shrubbery 
in the background, the front a field of yellow sand studded 
with tents and ships' gallies located at random, a small space in 
the centre having some little claim to be called regular. 

Brought the ship to anchor and moored her in a good berth 
and unbent the sails ; and the next day not an individual was left 
on board of all the officers and crew, mates, seamen, cooks and 
stewards all gone. There was a great rush of hotel keepers and 
"restaurateurs" for cooks and waiters. They bid as high as 
three hundred dollars a month for my black cook, and, as for 
Margaret, the poor wench was fairly bewildered. She was beset 
on all sides, and came to me to know what she should do. I 
selected for her a situation in the family of a gentleman from 
New England, who was one of the very few that had a family 



HI GH PRICES 55 

here. He agreed to give her one hundred dollars a month, with 
the promise of all his wife's cast-off clothing, if she pleased her. 

Many a sheep's eye was cast upon the Widow Lathrop, but 
she had woven her meshes around the mate too strong for him 
to tear asunder. As I would not consent that he should keep 
her on board, he left, took her on board the brig Arabian, sent 
for a parson, and had a double-twisted knot tied, which was to 
make them one bone and one flesh, till death should cut the 
knot asunder. 

And now Mrs. Bogert showed herself in her true colours. 
Some shoes were found in her possession that had been stolen 
from a case in the hold, and to screen herself from the appella- 
tion of thief, she was obliged to confess to something as bad. 
She said one of the sailors gave her the shoes ! 

Most of the passengers started off for the mines, and in two 
days they were all gone, except Doct. Tappe with his wife, fair, 
fat and forty, and the little, fat, black, sleek dog; they remained 
on board a fortnight. 

The first thing that struck me was the extravagant price of 
marketing. In this region where cattle were last year slaughtered 
for the hide alone, beef was now selling in the market at fifty 
cents and pork and mutton seventy-five cents a pound ; and here 
where vegetables of a quality superior to all anywhere else 
grown yield one hundred per cent, more than New England, I 
had to buy potatoes at the rate of twenty-five cents per pound ; 
butter, cheese and lard one dollar each for one pound ; eggs were 
ten dollars a dozen or one dollar for one egg, and yet numerous 
restaurants were crowded with customers. 

The next thing to notice was its counterpart, the outrageous 
price of labour, in the evening of our first day here, one of the 
passengers brought on board ten Mexican dollars, which he said 
he earned by ten hours labour on shore. I was obliged to pay 
$2,500 to discharge my cargo, and the consignees had to pay 
seven dollars a ton to lightermen for taking their goods on shore, 
a distance of half a mile. 

The first time I went on shore, I was like a countryman in 
London, completely bewildered. It was the rainy season and 
the ground was so soft and so much cut up by the constant 



5 6 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

stream of trucks and carts, that it was impossible to get along 
without sinking up to the knees. I perceived that those who had 
been there long enough to get used to it, went dashing along 
in a pair of boots that reached up to the thighs, neither look- 
ing to the right or left, and seeming to think that the dirtier they 
were, the more genteel they would appear. 

Every by- place and many places in the streets were strewn 
with cast-off underclothing, for a fresh supply of shirts, etc., 
could be bought for less than the cost of washing. At this 
time merchandise was lying all about in the mud for want of 
warehouses. In the principal thoroughfare the sidewalk was 
composed of boxes of tobacco, and barrels of rice and beans, 
and I saw piles of chests of tea and bags of coffee exposed to 
the weather. In passing along through the streets I hit my 
boot against something sharp, I scraped away the mud and found 
a bundle of mill saws, which the owner could not spare time to 
take care of or else he could not be found; and this is the case 
with a very large portion of the goods brought to this anomalous 
place. Bills of lading provided that goods that are not called 
for in thirty days may be sold at auction by order of shipmaster 
or consignees. 

The rainy season had found the market unstocked with boots 
and oiled clothing. I heard that the trader whose boots held 
out last, sold them at six ounces ($96) a pair. I sold a pair of 
short ones for $50. I had also a number of suits of waterproof 
clothing that cost me in Liverpool 7/6 per suit. I took them on 
shore one rainy day to a clothing store, the clothier took them at 
$20 a suit, and before I left the store he resold them all at 
double that price, and I believe if I had taken them round ped- 
dling, I might have realized $50 for each suit, for money ap- 
peared to be of no value. 

The first Sunday in San Francisco, I attended Divine Services 
in the forenoon. The chapel was a rough boarded frame, with 
benches, which were well filled with a heterogeneous congrega- 
tion of the pioneers, red shirts and hickory shirts, without coat 
or waistcoat, red and unwashed faces, hair uncombed and stand- 
ing out all ways like the quills of a porcupine. I saw only one 
bonnet in the chapel. Many of these rough-looking parishioners 



SAN FRANCISCO 57 

were men of intelligence and respectability. It was a very in- 
teresting service. 

In returning to my i ship, I passed down one of the few 
streets then laid out, by a finished house, with a flower garden 
in front, painted straw colour with green blinds; a piazza ran 
along the front, under the piazza stood two fashionably dressed 
ladies and a gentleman in earnest conversation. I had passed on 
about two rods, when I heard a violent altercation between them. 
I looked back and the ladies were transformed to she-devils 
incarnate; the man was just coming out of the gate, and the 
women were in a great rage, swearing at him in a manner too 
vulgar and obscene for me to repeat here. The most genteel 
looking house in San Francisco was a brothel. 

In the afternoon I went strolling about to see the wonders 
of the place. The eastern portion of the cove was a sandy level. 
Squatters had pitched their tents here, and had given it the name 
of Happy Valley. 

As I was standing there gazing about, I heard some con- 
versation going on in one of the tents, referring to Newbury- 
port. I pulled aside the screen, and out sprang a red face with 
a bald scalp. He seized me by both hands, bawling out, "Why, 
Capt. Coffin, is that you? Where upon earth did you come 
from? How do you do!" He was Capt. John Bradbury, who 
with a party of Northenders was living here in one of the old 
artillery tents. 

There were a number of other parties from Newburyport 
living here. They held on to their lots, and when the city began 
to stretch its streets in this direction, this spot was designated 
as Newburyport avenue, and a mournful avenue it has proved 
to some families in that city. Here the cholera and dysentery 
raged with the greatest virulence, and it was here that Messrs. 
Carr, Williams, Tappan and young Thurlo, breathed their last. 

The water came up to this spot at this time, but before I left 
California four streets built upon piles were run across the 
cove in front and some of the largest commission houses located 
there. 



CHAPTER XL 

After Mr. Higgins and Mrs. Lathrop had entered into part- 
nership and agreed to jog on cozily together, they rented a small 
tenement, and she set up a millinery with some goods brought 
out in the ship. To do his part, he obtained a loan from Mr. 
Moss, and bought a horse and cart, and entered the list as a 
drayman. But about ten days after they had become one flesh 
and one blood, there was a flare-up, and the knot suddenly 
snapped asunder. Higgins went home one evening from his 
day's labour, fondly imagining that a hard day's work was to be 
rewarded by the smiles and caresses of his angelic wife. He 
hastened to bind his Rosinante and provide his supper of straw, 
and then hastened to the enjoyment of his own evening meal, 
but a cruel disappointment awaited him. He found his home 
deserted and no supper cooked. He waited patiently some time, 
supposing that his wife, faithful partner of his joys and sorrows, 
had been summoned to attend some wealthy customer whom it 
would not do to neglect. Eight o'clock came but no wife, so he 
set to work, made a dish of tea, and fried his own pork, and 
"solus" ate his supper, all the time dwelling upon a quotation 
from Addison's "Spectator" which he had heard me read. It 
was on a well-appointed marriage. 

"Perpetual harmony their bed attend, 
And Venus still the well-match'd pair befriend. 
May she, when time has sunk him into years, 
Love her old man, and cherish his white hairs, 
Nor he perceive her charms thro' age decay, 
But think each happy sun his bridal day." 

Eight, nine, ten o'clock. He became uneasy and started out 
in search of the Angel. Fortune directed his steps to a low 
resort nearby, and there he found Mrs. Higgins, dear Mrs. 
Higgins, sweet Mrs. Higgins, faithful Mrs. Higgins, waltzing 
with a well known debauchee who has a wife and family not a 

68 



A DIVORCE 59 

hundred miles from Newburyport. He took her home, more 
lovely for her confusion, and once there he seized his cartwhip 
and laid it on, without being at all particular as to location; he 
set her to dancing the Polka to a new accompaniment, and every 
time she stopped, whack went the lash, and hop, skip and scream 
went Mrs. Higgins, until they had between them raised the whole 
select neighborhood. 

The next morning she complained to the Alcalde. Higgins 
was summoned to court to answer. But what would his plea 
avail against a woman's testimony in California in those days, 
when lawyers, sheriffs and judges were all corrupt alike? One 
glance of the voluptuous widow's eye was of more force than 
a marriage contract, and a petticoat could carry the day against 
all the breeches in California. Judge Terry made a decree an- 
nulling the marriage, gave her all the money and property there 
was between them, and made him pay the costs of court, and 
the sheriff seized his horse and cart. He came on board the 
Alhambra to work as a day labourer to assist the stevedore in 
discharging the cargo, when he gave me a full account of his 
troubles, sorry enough that he had not taken my advice. 

I had a very troublesome time and task in getting clear of 
my cargo, on account of the great number of consignees, many 
of whom could not be found. The freight bills were paid in 
advance at New Orleans. I had nothing to do with the goods 
when once delivered into the lighters. The lightermen finding 
no one at hand to receive them, would leave them there in the 
mud, time being too valuable to them to waste it in hunting up 
consignees. Many things were lost and ruined in this way, and 
the owners, thinking they had a claim upon the ship, would sue, 
and I was obliged to employ a lawyer, and dance attendance at 
court myself to save the ship from loss. 

During the winter, we had frequent gales of wind and storms 
from southeast, which had a reach of twenty-five miles down 
San Jose Bay, which on a flood tide raised a very heavy sea, and 
caused much damage, by ships driving from their moorings and 
coming in contact with other ships. During one of these gales 
of unusual violence and duration, the ship Canada of Nantucket 
drove down foul of the Alhambra and I was obliged to lash her 



60 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

alongside, and there we lay side by side, pitching bowsprit to 
the water for two days and one night. The night was pitch dark 
and it rained as it knows how to rain nowhere else but in Cali- 
fornia, and on the flood tide an English ship came driving up 
against the force of the tempest, and brought up across our 
sterns, her starboard bow under my larboard quarter, and her 
starboard quarter against the stern of the Canada. Her bows 
and quarter were both stove in, and in a short time longer she 
would have gone to the bottom, but the tide turned, and she 
drifted off; and having no moorings she brought up athwart the 
bows of the ship Xylon; the X. rose with a high sharp sea, and 
came down upon John Bull amidships, and the second time she 
mounted her, crushed her, and down she went in ten fathoms. 

Finished discharging cargo on the 27th day of December, and 
on the 30th of January, 1850, I sold the old ship to the Pacific 
Steamship Company for $13,500, having previously sold all the 
stoves and furniture, boats and cooking apparatus. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Being now at liberty, I began to look about and to ponder 
upon what I should go about to acquire a share of fortune's 
favours. I saw others speculating in merchandise and realizing 
a profit of 50 per cent, in one hour ; others buying lots and sell- 
ing again the next day, and making a comfortable fortune in a 
week. But I had not the courage or rather recklessness to enter 
that field ; and as to going to the mines, I had no taste for that. 
I elected to go into the lightering business as the most certain, 
if not the most genteel. I first bought a scow of twenty tons 
capacity, for which I paid $1,300, an extravagant price, but she 
cleared herself in ten days. I then bought another for $1,100, 
and afterwards a smaller one for $700. I had thus upwards of 
$3,000 invested in lighters, besides small boats, lines, etc., costing 
$500 more, this property, thus costing me $3,600, would not have 
been worth $1,000 in Boston; but when I state that I had sold 
the old ship's long boat for $1,000, some idea may be formed of 
the strange state of things here. As an instance of the profit of 
lightering, I have to say that one calm morning I started alone 
in one of my lighters, went alongside a brig from Pernambuco, 
the brig's crew loaded her with coffee, with which I returned 
to the landing before breakfast and earned $60 by the trip. Had 
I confined myself to this business I should probably have done 
well enough ; but, like everybody else, I was not satisfied ; I 
grasped for more, with what luck will appear in this narrative 
in due time. 

Having learned that small craft engaged in the river freight- 
ing business were realizing enormous freights, $150 a ton to 
Marysville, I dove headlong into that business, too. I bought 
a ship's launch for $600 and put her in the hands of a boat builder 
to lengthen and deck over. His bill and the expense of rigging 
made her stand me in $2,600. She was a sloop and I named her 
Sophronia. 

At this time San Francisco was thronged with gambling 

61 



62 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

saloons ; these establishments were fitted up in a style of gorgeous 
glitter to attract the unwary, the walls were hung with the most 
voluptuous pictures, bands of music were stationed in a small 
gallery, and a bar of tempting decanters occupied the whole of 
one side. The games were generally "monte" and some of these 
saloons had ten or twelve tables set out with doubloons, eagles 
and gold dust. Many of them had as a presiding genius a beauti- 
ful young girl — of course, a courtesan. It was astounding to see 
how crowded they were. 

At the "El Dorado" the jam was at times absolutely impene- 
trable. The crowd was composed chiefly of miners, who had 
been compelled to cease work in consequence of the rise of the 
river, and to see how they risked and parted with their gold dust, 
and how little concern it appeared to give them, opened to me a 
new leaf in the book of human nature. Persons who had toiled 
across the continent in misery and suffering indescribable, and 
had, after six months' travel, at length reached the gold region, 
and dug a pile of the glittering yellow ruin, were unable to resist 
the temptation. Blame them, my children, but be thankful such 
has not been your fate. These were the victims of those detest- 
able gamblers. I heard many a one, after losing all he had, say, 
with perfect unconcern, "No matter; I left my tools in the hole, 
and I'll get plenty more when the water falls." It seems that it 
was a rule among the miners to respect each other's claims, and 
if a miner went away and left his pickaxe in his hole, no one 
else dare meddle with his right. 

I have here to record an instance of legal justice in California. 
I sold from the Alhambra a lot of crockery ware and mattresses 
to a young man who was one of my passengers, of whom I had 
formed a favorable opinion, and who set up an eating and lodg- 
ing house. As he did not pay me according to promise,, and I 
had reason to believe that he was about to clear out without pay- 
ing, I sued him. 

The trial came on before the Alcalde's court. I had witnesses 
to prove the delivery of the goods and the price agreed upon. 
After hearing these witnesses, the Judge put me and the defend- 
ant upon the stand, and after I had told my story, he asked the 
defendant what he thought he ought to pay. Now, my bill was 



JUSTICE 63 

for $480, and the defendant valued the goods at $130. The com- 
promising Justice (there was no jury) added the sums together 
and gave me a verdict for one-half the amount, thus : 

Amount of my account $480.00 

Defendant's valuation 130.00 



$610.00 
2 1 $610.00 

$305.00 

For this amount, $305, an execution was issued, and six 
months afterwards the Sheriff came to me with a bill of costs for 
$60; he said the defendant had absconded, and he could not find 
property of his, and I must pay the costs, so that the account 
stands thus: My bill, $480.00; my lawyer's fee, $50; costs of 
court, $60; amounting to a dead loss of $590. So much for 
justice in California in 1849. 

Here, also, is an instance of swindling in this place: About 
the last of January, 1850, a party of three started a large auction 
establishment. They mounted a sign as large as my sloop, and 
threatened by their style of opening to clear the field of all the 
other auctioneers then existing. They had been under way about 
a week when they advertised a sale as long as the maintopbow- 
line. I thought it a good opportunity to dispose of some articles 
which I had on hand, and I put in twenty-five thousand segars, 
two barometers, six spyglasses, and a number of articles left of 
the Alhambra's stores. The auction went off in fine style, bread, 
cold ham, tongue, punch, etc., was profusely provided, and every- 
body was in fine spirits. My things brought satisfactory prices, 
and I went to my solitary bunk that night quite relieved. Set- 
tling day (two days afterwards) I called for my account and 
found the store closed, the monstrous sign had disappeared, 
Besse & Co. had "absquatulated," and that was the end of that 
adventure. 

To give an instance of vicissitudes in this anomalous place, I 
will cite the case of Finley, Johnson & Co. When I arrived here, 
this house stood foremost of all the mercantile establishments 



64 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

in San Francisco. They started early, bought lots which cost 
$20,000, and very soon afterwards sold out for $300,000. They 
continued about eighteen months, when they failed, lost all, the 
creditors got little or nothing. The head of the house returned 
to Baltimore broken-hearted, and died soon after. 

When I arrived in San Francisco, a gentleman by the name of 
Ward, from New York, where he was respectably connected, 
stood in the front rank among the merchants of the city. He also 
became mad with excitement in consequence of the success of his 
early speculations and extended his operations beyond what pru- 
dence and reason dictated — but prudence and reason were obso- 
lete words in the vocabulary of California — things began to go 
wrong with him, he could not meet his engagements, and bor- 
rowed money at ten per cent, per month, till at last, hard pressed, 
he agreed to pay one per cent, a day for a loan for thirty days. 
On the morning that the note became due, the report of a pistol 
was heard in his room, and he was found in bed with a dis- 
charged pistol lying by his ear, and his left eye and forehead 
blown out. The day before was Sunday, and he had officiated at 
the sacrament at the Presbyterian church. 

A Mr. Howison, from Philadelphia, with $50,000 at com- 
mand, bought a water lot, and placed a store ship upon it. His 
success was great at first, and he went on and built a pier from 
the ship to the foot of Sacramento street, and erected ware- 
houses at a great outlay, hiring money at the usual rate, which 
was ten per cent, a month. A reverse overtook him, business 
took a start in another direction, his rents fell off, his bankers 
pressed, he could not pay up, they seized his property, he lost all, 
became dispirited, took to drink, and died alone in one of the 
stores he had so lately built in the full expectation of soon be- 
coming a millionaire. 

The world will never know the distresses of this place, where 
all is bustle and hurry, and nobody feels any interest in the 
affairs of another. Many a poor mortal breathes his last alone, 
without a friend to smooth his pillow or convey his last message 
to his friends, who will never know when, how or in what place 
he ceased to struggle with his fate. All they will ever know will 
be that at such a time his correspondence ceased. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

A few days after I arrived, as I was strolling along Mont- 
gomery street, carefully picking my way through the bogs, I 
was accosted by a person calling me by name; he was dashing 
along through the mud in boots that reached to his thighs, cor- 
duroy trousers, a fustian coat, hickory shirt, and a Mexican 
sombrero, and looked like a dismounted hussar. He was Mr. 
Bard Plummer, from Newburyport. He invited me down to his 
store. I found him engaged in the grocery business with two 
young men from Boston, under the style of Plummer, Kieth & 
Co. They had been established about seven months and had been 
very successful. 

Their store was a rough-boarded frame building about fifteen 
by twenty-five feet, situated in a mud puddle near the foot of 
Sacramento street. In one corner of the building, a space eight 
feet by ten, was partitioned off with rough lumber; in it were 
three bunks or shelves. This was their lodging and counting 
room. For this miserable apology for a store they were paying 
a rent of $1,000 a month, and this always in advance, which, at 
ten per cent, per month for money, makes a grand total of $25,- 
000 per year. 

Opposite to their store was a sheet iron store, twenty-five by 
forty feet, two stories high. Messrs. Everett & Co. had rented 
this for $60,000 per year. They had fitted up the second story 
into small counting rooms, which they rented to others, and the 
lower floor was let to the Collector of the Customs for a bonded 
warehouse, and their receipts were $10,000 per month. I paid 
$100 a month for desk room. 

Having got my sloop ready for loading, I placed my lighters 
in charge of Capt. P. Thurlo, of Newburyport, a young man 
whom I had partially brought up at sea, and in whom I had 
confidence. I made arrangements for a trip to Marysville, and I 
thought if the traders in that place could make money, after 
paying such enormous freights, in addition to their store ex- 
penses, I could do best by taking up a load on my own account. 

65 



66 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

I took in a cargo of such goods as were suited to the miners' 
wants, and a deckload of boards. My invoice amounted to about 
$2,500. I procured one lad who had been with me in the Ocean 
Queen; he was to act as mate, cook and all hands. I got ready to 
start on the 27th of March, and, having written to my wife an 
account of my proceedings and advised her of the compliment 
of the name of my sloop, I left my letter in the post-office to go 
by the next mail. Behold me now master and owner of a sloop 
and her cargo. 

I imprudently started at midday. I should have taken the 
morning, so as to have got across the bay before the daily nor'- 
wester set in, which is almost as regular as the sunrise from 
March to October. It commences at about 9 a. m. and blows 
with great fury till about sunset, rushing down the back hills and 
through the gullies, carrying along clouds of dust, which fills 
all the stores and houses, and even penetrates their trunks and 
drawers. The wind and dust in summer, and the rain and mud 
in winter, make San Francisco a pandemonium. 

On getting out from under the lee of the high land, and into 
the current, the sloop began to pitch and jump like a wild colt 
under a Mexican horse-breaker. I had as much as I could do 
to steer her, standing in the cuddy hatch, and holding the tiller 
in one hand, and the main sheet in the other, while my assistant 
was busy in securing things about the deck. A violent pitch and 
jerk snapped off the towline of the small boat astern, and she 
went dancing away to leeward as lively as an egg shell. Here 
was a "pretty kittle of fish." The sea was so rough, high and 
short that it was dangerous to wear the sloop round till I could 
get under the lee of Angel Island, about two miles distant. After 
an hour's work, we succeeded in getting her astern again, and 
steered for Pablo Straits, a narrow passage leading from San 
Francisco Bay to Pablo Bay. 

Towards night the wind died away, and, it being ebb tide, I 
anchored about seven miles from the city. On going below I 
found six inches of water in the cabin. Here was another "pretty 
kittle of fish." I set the boy at work pumping while I bailed 
away from the cabin, and at about 10 p. m. we succeeded in free- 
ing the craft of water. 



A ROUGH TRIP 67 

We then turned to, fried some pork and potatoes in one of the 
Portland patent compact miner's stoves, which are of about as 
much use to a miner as a surplice would be to a sailor (a miner 
wants nothing but a frying pan and a tin pot), made a cup of tea, 
got supper and turned in, or, rather, turned on, for my bed-place 
was a shelf so narrow and so close to the deck that when once 
there I could not turn over; if I wished to "tack ship" I was 
obliged to back out and get in afresh t'other side to. 

It came on to rain during the night in true California fashion, 
and, my ear being within six inches of the deck, the pattering 
of the raindrops sounded like a hundred Indians beating their 
tomtoms. I could not sleep, and my busy fancy ran over my 
strange career. From the command of one of the largest freight- 
ing ships, now starting on a voyage of uncertain fortune, in a 
small sloop boat, with only one boy for my helpmate and com- 
panion ; a wild adventure, but hope makes all my privations light, 
as Simon Spriggins says. 

At 4 a. m. I turned out, called all hands and got under way. 
John fried some salt pork, and at early daylight we sat down 
to our homely breakfast, picnic fashion. I enjoyed it much; 
a good appetite kept the dirt out of sight and made the coffee 
palatable, which at any other time would have seemed like 
sweetened dishwater, seasoned with tobacco. 

At 6 a. m. we passed two small islands on the starboard hand, 
called the Brothers, and two others, similar, on the other side, 
called the Sisters. The passage between the Brothers and Sisters 
is about one mile wide, and this passage connects San Francisco 
Bay with Pablo Bay. A peninsula stretched out from the coast 
range of mountains, about thirty miles, and from two to five 
miles in breadth, separating the two bays, and the Brothers lie 
close to its western extremity. Having passed the straits, the 
course turns at a right angle to the eastward, and the distance 
across Pablo Bay is about twelve miles. 

On the north side of this bay, or inland lake, are several 
small streams, running up a few miles into the most fertile dis- 
trict of California. Sonoma, said to be a most delightful village, 
is situated on one of these streams. This village sends apples, 



68 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

pears, peaches, grapes, etc., when in season, to San Francisco, 
where they are sold at prices that seem almost fabulous. 

Having crossed Pablo Bay, I came to the Straits of Car- 
quinez (the passage leading to Suisun Bay, about two miles 
wide). The town of Benicia stands on the north side of these 
straits. As the tide was running out strong, I kept close in to 
Benicia ; for some time the sloop did not make any headway, nor 
did she drop astern. I put a paddle out to sound, and found she 
was fast in the mud. I ran out an anchor and tried to heave her 
off, but it was no go; the tide ebbed away and left us high and 
dry in the mud, which was so soft and yet so stiff that I could 
neither wade through it nor force the boat over it. 

So there I was obliged to remain all day, abreast of the 
town, and only fifty feet from the bank ; but I had a good oppor- 
tunity to view the place and its vicinity, and, in my opinion, it 
is decidedly preferable to San Francisco for a seaport. The 
ground rises in a gradual ascent from the bank, which is so bold 
that a ship can lie alongside of it and discharge over a stage. 
Vessels of the greatest draft can pass Pablo Bay without diffi- 
culty, and the Government is about to construct a navy yard 
here. There is never any sea, for the peninsula before spoken 
of lies between this place and the Bay of San Francisco and 
serves to temper the westerly gales which are so annoying there. 

If the proprietors of the grounds here had been wide awake 
at the commencement of the California race, they might have 
given their town the start, which would have secured the im- 
mense trade of the country ; but the day was lost, and San Fran- 
cisco, with all its annoyance from dust, mud and its daily hurri- 
canes, was allowed to get under such headway as must always 
secure to it the advantage of the chief entreport and seaport. 

Opposite to Benicia is a small town, nestled in a lovely valley 
backed by hills which at this distance (three miles) looks charm- 
ingly picturesque. It is called by the pretty name of Martinez 
(Martenay). After passing Benicia, the shores again diverge, 
and we enter Suisun Bay, a sheet of water fifteen miles in 
extent, with numerous marshy islands and mud banks. The 
lands around this bay are all high, and in the eastern quarter 
Mont Diablo, or Devil's Mountain (the highest peak of the coast 



SACRAMENTO RIVER 69 

range), overtops all between, itself a mole hill to the Sierra 
Nevada, rising in awful snowy sublimity beyond. 

After crossing this lake, I came to a narrow opening through 
marshy ground, and this opening is the outlet of both the Sacra- 
mento and San Joachim rivers. Advancing through this opening 
about two miles, we find the latter river coming short round a 
marshy point from the southeast, while to the northeast extends 
a sheet of water four or five miles in extent, having in it a num- 
ber of small reedy islands, the passages between them all leading 
to the Sacramento. At this opening on the right, there is a 
space of two or three miles of even and apparently 
good ground, and here I found three buildings and four old, 
condemned ships hauled up alongside the bank. This spot 
was dignified by the name of New York of the Pacific. I believe 
there is a Boston of the Pacific somewhere here. I perceived a 
house standing alone in its glory away on the opposite bank; 
that may be Boston. There is no possible reason why a New 
York or a Boston should ever be built up here. 

I steered away to the northeast, following some boats that 
I knew were bound to Sacramento, and after about ten miles of 
circuitous sailing among marshy islands, I came to elevated 
grounds, covered with large trees, and here commences the 
Sacramento River; all below this to Suisun Bay is a basin of 
"tule" marshes. Looking away to the southeast I can see the 
sail of a number of small craft bound up the other river to 
Stockton. 

The Sacramento at its mouth is about a quarter of a mile 
wide, but, having advanced about two miles, it narrows to 
five or six rods, and here begin the trials and troubles of river 
navigation. Both banks are so overgrown with huge oak and 
sycamore trees, with an impervious screen of underbrush, that it 
is impossible for the wind to find its way through, and there we 
lay, entirely becalmed, while the tops of the trees are dancing 
merrily in a stiff breeze, and we have now invaded the region 
of mosquitoes, and they are very large, savage and bloodthirsty. 
The current is running down at the rate of three or four miles 
an hour, not a breath of wind, and the thermometer above 100 
degrees. 



7 o 



A PIONEER VOYAGE 



The only way to advance is to warp and tie. I run the sloop 
alongside of the bank, tie her to a bush, then send the boy ahead 
with a long line, which he makes fast to a tree and brings the 
other end back on board, and then he hauls away forward while 
I stand off to assist and coil down the line, steering the boat 
with the tiller between my knees. Having dragged the craft up 
the length of the line, we tie her to a bush again, 
while John runs the line ahead again; and so on, 
warp and tie, warp and tie, and in this way it is a good 
day's work to gain three miles, for nearly half the time the warp 
line gets foul of some snag or root on bottom, and it has to be 
slipped and run out again. Gracious heavens ! I exclaim, and is 
this the way I have got to work up to Marysville? One hundred 
and fifty miles of this sort of navigation! I have undertaken 
a pretty sort of a job, to be sure! "No matter; gold's the talis- 
man," as Simon Spriggins says, "will lighten all my labors." 



CHAPTER XIV, 

April 2. — Warp and tie, warp and tie, warp and tie! Sun 
shining down in a blaze of fury, with not a cloud to screen his 
scorching rays; thermometer no degrees, not a breath to cool 
our frizzling livers — and mosquitoes! oh, my conscience! 

We started at daylight this morning, and in order to lose no 
time in cooking, I took the Portland patent miner's cook stove 
aft, so that I could attend to getting breakfast while the boy 
was busy running out the line and working ahead. 

The branches of the trees extend out over the river in some 
places forty or fifty feet and it requires much caution to keep 
the sloop mast clear of them. As we had just passed one of the 
largest of these scraggy branches and I had given the sloop a 
sheer in again, the warp line gave way and down stream came 
the sloop broadside to the current; the masthead caught in the 
branch and laid her down upon her side. I seized the tiller and 
overboard went P. P. M. cook stove, breakfast and all. Oh, 
delightful! The masthead held fast till the inclination gave it 
a chance to spring clear, when up she came again, right side up, 
so suddenly that John, who stood looking up at the ominous 
branch in great trepidation, lost his balance and made a backward 
somersault into the river, to look for his P. P. M. cooking stove. 

Down stream went the sloop, and before we could stop her 
she had drifted some rods below where we started from this 
morning. Labour and breakfast lost and cook stove gone to the 
bottom of the Sacramento, there to remain a memento of the 
voyage of the Sophronia. We had a frypan and coffee pot left, 
and went on shore, made a fire, fried some ham and eggs, and 
never did I relish ham and eggs so well before. 

There is a cut-off, or slough, in this river, which saves ten 
or twelve miles, but, being a stranger, I missed it, and took the 
main river, and, after toiling a week, I reached the upper junc- 
tion. Here the slough enters the river at an acute angle, the river 
half a mile wide and the slough about thirty yards; directly at 

71 



72 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

the junction there is a little knoll or islet, with half a dozen great 
sycamores on it. 

Against this knoll" were two large schooners, crowded in 
among the branches by a six-knot current, and just as I was 
passing there a third schooner was emerging from the slough. 
She had no sooner run her stem out into the river's current than 
she flew round like the fan of a windmill and drove down foul 
of the other two, and jibbooms and mainbooms snapped off like 
joss sticks, and gaff topsail and staysails became pennants. 

The river being wider here, I had the advantage of a light 
breeze, and at night had gained the enormous amount of twelve 
miles. On the 12th of April I reached the city of Sacramento, 
after fifteen days' labour and boiling and roasting. 

About three miles below the city is a ranch or clearing, and 
here a German by the unmerciful and unmusical name of Schwartz 
had squatted to raise vegetables for the city market. He told me 
that last year his receipts were $25,000. Ten thousand dollars 
of the sum was for watermelons alone. I gave him $2 for one 
about as large as my head, which he said was "too mush sheepe." 

I have omitted to mention that in February last I came up 
to this place in a steamer, during the overflow. At that time the 
whole city was submerged to the depth of from four to ten feet. 
It was a curious sight; the whole of the low country was inun- 
dated and a vast sea of fresh water extended from the Sierra 
Nevada to the coast range, and the river was only distinguish- 
able by the lines of trees along its banks. Thousands of cattle 
were standing about in the fields in water up to their bodies, 
awaiting the lingering death that nothing but a speedy sub- 
sidence could avert. The houses, stores and tents of the city 
appeared to be afloat, the inhabitants gazing out of their upper 
windows upon a waste of waters, and moving from place to place 
on rafts or skiffs made of rough boards nailed together for the 
present purpose. All business was suspended except gambling. 
That, fire will not burn nor water quench. I saw a party in a 
large scow, tied to a tree, surrounding a "monte" table, and at 
San Francisco a gambling saloon was kept open during one of 
the large fires and the games were kept up till the fire reached 



WARP AND TIE 



73 



the building, when, between the smoke and the water from the 
engines, they were obliged to cut and run. 

At this time the levee is two or five feet out of water, but 
large pools of stagnant water are to be seen in various parts of 
the city. Here is now a busy scene. The principal streets are so 
blocked up with teams that I do not see how they are to be 
extricated without breaking up some of them to make room for 
the rest. The horrid jargon of the teamsters, nine out of ten of 
them from the Western States, the clang of the auctioneers' 
gongs and triangles, the noise and confusion of the crowded 
levee, and the infernal din of those splendid, those gorgeous 
gambling hells — it all outbabels Babel. 

I took on board here a green Yankee boy to assist in the game 
of warp and tie, and started again on my wearisome voyage. 
There was a light breeze blowing up the river, but, although we 
were sailing along at the rate of five miles an hour, still I could 
not leave the city behind ; it seemed to be following me up the 
river. At length, after advancing about five miles, I reached a 
sharp bend in the river, and, warping round the point, I lost 
sight of Sacramento. I had been sailing through a most abom- 
inable stench, for there are several kraals or pounds for keeping 
cattle to slaughter. They are butchered on the banks of the 
river, and the hides and offal are left there to putrefy in the hot 
sun, and the stink is almost unsupportable. 

After turning the point, I came to a clearing where there 
was a small house half boarded, and some men at work in a field, 
and, seeing some cows feeding, I went on shore to see if I could 
get some milk. I found the party was from Massachusetts, one 
of them a Dr. Kittredge from Andover. They had been to the 
mines, and, not being successful, they had returned and taken 
up this "ranch" to raise vegetables for the market, a far more 
certain way of getting gold than seeking for it among the 
streams and rocks above. I expected to be courteously received, 
but in this country courtesy seems to have given place to the 
all-absorbing idea of getting gold. I asked if I could get some 
milk and was crustily answered, No. 

I left the doctor and his associates and pushed on up the 
river, and about two miles further on I came to another clearing, 



74 



A PIONEER VOYAGE 



where was a log hovel and a number of pigs and children lying 
promiscuously around the door. A pole was stuck up on the 
river's bank, from which was suspended an old rag having 
painted on it the word "Meeluk." What upon earth is meeluk? 
said I. John thought it meant milk. I stepped out, and, thread- 
ing my way among pigs and young ones, I entered the hovel 
and found there no one but an Irish woman. I asked her if she 
had milk to sell. "Who bees ye?" says she. I told her I was a 
weary voyager, etc. "Oh, yees, to be sure," she replied, "I'se got 
meeluk, for sich as ye be, but ye see as how I thought ye been 
one of them infarnal divils of meeluk pedlars what comes here 
fer to buy my meeluk, that is as good as any other woman's 
meeluk,~but the varmints, they mixes chark and water into it, 
and takes it down to the city yonder, and sells it for Judy Mc- 
Farragan's meeluk, and they shall have no more of it, for I 
vallys my repitation as well as they does." I gave her a dollar 
for two quarts, and that evening I had a luxurious supper of 
bread and milk, and this much I can say, that, whether it was 
Judy's milk or her cow's, it was pure milk. 

After four days more of warping I came to a point in the 
river. Turning this, I found a fine sheet of water one mile 
broad and three miles long. The trees grew thinner and a 
gentle breeze was allowed to fill my sails, and I was favoured 
with a respite from this tedious warping business. Having sailed 
through this basin, I came to the junction of the Sacramento 
and Feather rivers. 

Here are two "Cities" standing on opposite sides of the basin, 
and looking at each other in a spirit of rivalry and defiance. They 
are called Vernon and Fremont. In the hurry to build cities 
these two ranches started in the race together, the proprietors 
not doubting that the location would soon make another St. Louis 
of one of them. But they have reached the acme of their career, 
and there they stand, monuments of the folly of speculators. 

Vernon (Jehu! what a name! Why, there is nothing green 
within fifty miles of it!) consists of three hotels, two or three 
canvas shops and some half a dozen huts and hovels and a great 
pile of lumber. Fremont, a name complimentary to the Colonel, 
had six hotels, about a dozen other buildings, and also a great 



TWO CITIES 75 

pile of lumber, and can also boast of her shipping, for the old 
barque Rio Grande lies here condemned. Every cluster of hovels 
or tents in California is° called a city. 

It being sunset, I rounded my sloop to, tied her to a tree 
growing in the river, threw myself on deck and slept gloriously 
till daylight. This is one of the few comforts of California. 
People stretch themselves at the roots of trees and sleep soundly. 



CHAPTER XV. 

April 20th. — Up and at it at daylight. Here the Feather 
River branches off to the right, and up this river lay my route. 
There was a fine breeze blowing up the reach, and I went on 
swimmingly for four or five miles, when I reached another short 
bend in the river, and, having turned the point, I lost my wind, 
which could not find a chink among the trees large enough to 
send me a cupful. Then it was warp and tie again for ten miles 
further. In this operation I find the boy I took on board at 
Sacramento very useful. 

I then came to another city, called Nicolaus. This was a 
ranch belonging to a Dutchman of that name who found his way 
here some ten or twelve years since, and here he squatted among 
Indians, hunting wild cattle and slaughtering them for the hides, 
which he sold to ships from Boston engaged in the Northwest 
coast trade. Some speculators persuaded him to lay out his 
ranch in building lots, worming themselves into his good graces 
by complimenting him in the name of the paper city. They went 
to Sacramento and San Francisco and found fools enough to 
invest here at $1,000 a lot, feathered their own nests and "ab- 
squatulated." Now poor Nicolaus is in a fair way to lose all in 
feeing lawyers in contesting the titles of the victims who had 
bought and paid their money to the scheming speculators. 

Among these victims was one by the name of Everard. He 
came to California as steward of the first of Howland and Aspin- 
wall's steamers. On landing at San Francisco he opened a res- 
taurant, in Portsmouth Square. His success was astonishing. 
He told me that his profits from that small establishment were 
$1,000 a week. Restaurants soon became common, and he was 
induced to invest in this new "city." He said he spent $20,000 
and would now be glad to sell out for one-quarter of that sum. 

At this place I found Dr. Tappe, with his wife, fair, fat and 
forty, and the little, fat, black and sleek dog. The doctor had 
tried his fortune at Stockton and in Sacramento. At the latter 

76 



DR. TAPPE 



77 



place he had been hunted out by the Nicolaus .speculators and had 
been inveigled into spending what means he had in this place. 
He had built a very good house and was trying to keep store, 
but there was nobody to buy, and he cursed San Francisco, 
Stockton, Sacramento, Nicolaus and all California, and said he 
was bound to return to Peoria as soon as he could dispose of 
his investment here. He had dug up and planted a small patch 
of ground around his house, which he called his garden, but I 
saw nothing growing there but wilted cabbages. Hurrah for 
sauerkraut ! 

Opposite to Nicolaus is a rancheria, or Indian village, situated 
on a sandy bar. Their wigwams are miserable hovels, showing 
the want of any idea of comfort in the human race in a state 
of nature. These Indians are the most squalid-looking wretches 
I have ever met with. They live principally on acorns and fish. 
They collect a year's supply of the former when in season, and 
preserve them in little circular enclosures made of poles standing 
up in the ground and interwoven with reeds and covered with 
thatch. One of these kraals is attached to each hovel. 

To catch fish, some twenty or thirty men, women and chil- 
dren wade out in single file on the sandbar; the leader marches 
them round in a semicircle, so as to enclose a space between them 
and the shore ; then they all face inward and advance to a focus, 
beating the water as they draw to land. Two men are enclosed 
in the semicircle with a net about eight feet long and four feet 
broad with a stretcher at each end; each man holds one of these 
stretchers and when the circle has come to a focus they dex- 
trously slip their net under the school of small fish which the 
swarthy wretches have frightened into a compact body and sweep 
them out upon the sand, and if the haul has been a good one 
they jump and leap, whoop and scream like Bedlam broke loose. 

April 25. — As usual, a sun of molten lead and a sky without 
a cloud, or the least particle of moisture, so at it we go, warp 
and tie again. About two miles farther up we came to shallow 
water, so that we could force the boat along by poling, and I 
let the boys try this method of locomotion as a relief from this 
everlasting warping business. But it was like leaving off work 
and going to sawing wood. However, we got along faster, and 



IS 



7 8 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

two days after we reached the "city" of Plumas (about ten miles 
above Nicolaus), consisting of five buildings, three of them tav- 
erns. 

This place was a part of the domain of the famous Capt. 
Sutter. A young, scheming Yankee by the name of Beach got 
him drunk and in that state obtained a deed of this ranch, went 
below, and found fools enough to buy his lots at $1,000 each. 

One of the taverns was owned and kept by an old man from 
Illinois, named Robinson; he is as "deaf as an adder," and, like 
all deaf persons, he persisted in talking for his own amusement. 
He emigrated to this country last year, with a wife and eight 
children, the four eldest of them daughters. They came across 
the plains, and, after five months of intolerable suffering, they 
reached Sacramento. There he fell in with Beach, who persuaded 
him to take a share in his new city and build this hotel. Just 
back of his house I noticed four little hillocks, side by side, in 
the parched and arid ground. I asked him what these were. 
Without shedding a tear the old man replied, "There lie my wife 
and three of my daughters." He had scarcely got settled here 
when the typhus fever carried them all off at once, but he did 
not seem to be affected by it. His whole soul was given to ped- 
dling out rot-gut liquors from his bar at twenty-five cents a glass 
and peddling hay to travellers at the rate of $200 a ton. The 
girl that was left was a good-looking lass and very industrious, 
and, I dare say, will make a very good wife. This was probably 
one of the old man's inducements in coming to California, to find 
a market for his girls. He has succeeded in regard to three of 
them. They will never cost him any more. This "city" will also 
prove a failure. 

April 28th. — Started again, warp and tie fashion, and, after 
tugging up the dirty river about five miles farther, I came to the 
residence of Capt. Sutter, called Hock farm. This is a fine 
situation. The corn, wheat and garden vegetables were in a 
very thriving condition, notwithstanding the grounds around 
were baked as dry as bricks by the scorching sun. But the 
Captain keeps a colony of Indians upon his ranch, and employs 
them in irrigating his lands by bringing water from the river. 
He has 1,000 horses, and his herds of cattle are numberless. His 



HOCK FARM 79 

house is a long one, in the antiquated German style, with a fine 
esplanade in front, and his numerous outhouses form a little 
village. He was at home and received me very politely. 

He found his way to this country some thirty years since, 
leaving a young family behind in Switzerland, and here he 
remained, never going home, and scarcely ever corresponding 
with his wife for want of communication. He obtained from 
the Mexican Government a grant of a large territory here, and 
it was on this land that the first gold was found, which might 
have made him the richest man in the universe. But he is a 
weak-minded man, and insinuating schemers have taken advan- 
tage of his good nature and inveigled away most of his prop- 
erty. His family have lately come out to join him. One can 
imagine the meeting. 

The sight of this farm, with everything green, the trees 
thinned off so as to admit of circulation of a gentle breeze, was 
to me very refreshing after toiling a month upon this abominable 
river, scorched to a crisp by the almost intolerable heat and 
stung into mince meat by the unmerciful mosquitoes. I was but 
illy disposed to resume my toilsome voyage, but patience and 
hope is my motto. 

May 1st. — Through the open trees of Capt. Sutter's farm 
comes a gentle breeze laden with the perfume of a thousand 
gorgeous flowers. The corn fields are bending gracefully and 
wheat six feet high and now turning yellow is waving like a 
golden lake. Horses are racing and colts prancing, while great 
herds of staid and sober cattle are chewing the cud of resigna- 
tion. Indians — men, squaws and papooses — in files are marching 
to and from the river with their cans and buckets. Capt. Sutter 
must feel himself to be a Nabob. These Indians appear to be 
elevated fifty degrees in the scale of humanity above those I saw 
at Nicolaus. 

With a heavy heart I bid good morning to Capt. S. and 
started on my wearisome voyage. By the help of the breeze I 
advanced about three miles, when I turned a bend and once more 
lost my breeze. The river now narrowed so that the branches 
of the huge trees nearly interlocked over the stream; in several 
places they had been trimmed off to admit the passage of ves- 



80 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

sels that had preceded me. And this must be the grand mos- 
quito manufactory. They are turned out here in myriads of 
millions, and they are perfect, too. Their buzz is like the blower 
of a steam engine, and their sting would draw blood from a 
rhinoceros. Talk of the Mississippi ! Why, the mosquitoes there 
are but midgets to these rascals, and this mosquito factory ex- 
tends for two miles. 

In the middle of the reach the river bends at an acute angle, 
and just as I was warping round the sharp point an immense 
tree, torn up by the roots, came driving down the rapid current, 
took my sloop on the weather bow, snapped off the towline, and 
she shot across and ran her bow in among the thick undergrowth 
up to her mast, and the current swung her stern down and 
wedged her in so as to be inextricable. We could not see where 
the bow was until after two hours' work in cutting and clearing 
away the compact mass forward, when we found that the bow- 
sprit was firmly fixed in the crotch of a live oak tree. We were 
obliged to cut away a huge limb to get her clear. At length, 
after the hardest day's work of all, we reached the end of this 
narrow pass and came to a sandy point, where we tied up and 
went to bed. It is singular, but during the nights we were not 
annoyed by mosquitoes, probably because we did not use any 
lights. 

May 2. — It was eight o'clock before any of us awoke this 
morning. The sandy shore continued up the river about a mile. 
While warping by this mile I noticed that at the edge of the 
water the sand was full of shining yellow particles. It must be 
gold dust, of course! We went to work scraping and rinsing 
like any old miners. Now, thought I, the goal is reached, and 
Simon Spriggins would not be long in filling his saddle-bags. 
But, after gathering about a pint, I was surprised to see how 
light it was. It was nothing but minute particles of mica, after 
all! 

The sandy beach terminated in a steep, high bluff, with some 
ten or fifteen acres of level ground at the top comparatively 
clear of trees. Here stood a large building, with a big sign 
stretching across the front saying it was the United States 
Hotel. Near it was another, smaller building, bearing the sign 



ELIZA BREWERY 81 

of Eliza Brewery. I thought that Eliza must be a bold woman 
to undertake to keep store here, for I could see no living animal 
around. But, having laid my sloop alongside the bank, a long, 
lank, gawky individual with a red, freckled face and coarse 
yellow hair, came peering over the bluff. I asked him what place 
that was. "Well, now," said he; "ain't you a greenhorn, to be 
sure! Why, I kinder reckon as haow this 'ere is the city of 
Eliza, and a tarnation good dinner you can git up here at our 
haotel, for aour Dan keeps it, and if Dan daon't know haow to 
git up the fixin's, you may shoot me and be durned." So it seems 
Madam Eliza's store proved to be the City Brewery. 

I went up onto the bank, and back of the hotel and brewery 
were half a dozen other rough-boarded buildings. I entered 
the hotel and found there about twenty men engaged in the 
absorbing game of "monte." It was dinner time and I took a 
seat at the table, and found that the long, lank individual had 
told the truth ; the dinner was excellent and well cooked, and 
cost me only two dollars and a quarter. 

Through an opening in the trees I caught a glimpse of a part 
of Marysville, my port of destination, about two miles distant in 
air line, but seven by the crooked river. A little steamer came 
along (a ship's launch with a screw propeller at her stern) and 
I employed the skipper to tow me up, which he did in an hour 
and an half, and only charged me $200. But there is a rapid 
or overfall between Eliza and Marysville which it would have 
been impossible to overcome with what force I had. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Marysville is situated on a tongue of land at the junction 
of the Feather and Yuba rivers; the landing fronts the latter, 
which at this time is about thirty yards wide and twenty feet 
deep in the channel, but in the dry season it is but a mere gully, 
with scarcely water enough for a Joppa wherry to navigate. 
Here are six hotels, as many gambling saloons and about twenty 
stores, mostly of canvas. Trade was brisk, wagons and pack 
mules continually coming and going. 

The upper mines cannot be reached by wheels, and merchan- 
dise is transported in pack saddles on the backs of mules. The 
muleteers are native Calif ornians. One man can manage fifty 
mules. When the first mule is loaded he is allowed to wander 
about at his pleasure, but he never strolls away out of sight of 
his companions, but as fast as they are provided with their 
burdens they march off to make room for the next, when all 
are loaded up, and all is ready, the muleteer sounds a peculiar 
whistle, and they all collect together, the guide mounts his own 
animal, gives the word and starts off ahead, the other animals 
fall into line single file, and off they go as regular as a file of 
soldiers. A mule is far preferable to a horse for this kind of 
work. 

I laid my sloop alongside the landing and commenced trad- 
ing, but I soon found that I was not posted as to prices. I fixed 
them as high as I could in conscience, but they were never re- 
fused, and I got Mr. Farish (a gentleman to whom I had a let- 
ter of introduction) to fix prices for me. A man came to buy 
some molasses. I had three barrels which I had bought in 
South France at 80 cents. I asked Mr. F. what I must ask 
for it. "Two dollars and a half," said he. When I named that 
price to my customer he at once said he would take all I had. 
Tea that cost $1 a pound sold for $2.50, sugar and coffee in the 
same ratio. I had twenty thousand segars (short sizes) that I 
paid $6 a thousand for, and I sold them at $20 a thousand; 

82 



MARYSVILLE 83 

pick axes that cost $24 a dozen brought $6 each; a crowbar 
brought $8; a round pointed shovel brought $15, while a square 
one was unsalable at $1, although it could be so easily altered, 
but nobody had time to waste in altering shovels. 

It was now the haying season and there were no scythes in 
California. I heard that a trader in Marysville had half a dozen, 
which he had the conscience to ask $100 apiece for, and sold 
them so too. But that is no wonder when hay is worth $100 
a ton, and is to be had anywhere for the cutting, some wild fields 
producing three tons to an acre. 

Mr. Farish was formerly a wealthy merchant in Natchez, 
Miss., and was ruined by a fall in the price of cotton at a time 
when he held a large stock ; so he came to California to retrieve 
his fortune, and selected Marysville as his field of operations. 
He has done and is now doing a great business, having obtained 
the confidence of the miners by his honesty and fair dealing. His 
store is of canvas, twelve feet by thirty, with the ground for 
the floor; and his goods are lying promiscuously about on the 
ground, but they do not lie long. They are continually employed 
in fitting out wagons and pack mules and taking in fresh supplies 
from below. 

Across the back part of the store is a canvas screen, separating 
a space 10x12 feet ; this is their counting room, lodging room and 
kitchen. Nearly everybody lives in this way, for it would be too 
extravagant to board at a hotel. On a counter stands a pair of 
small scales, nicely adjusted, and a pair of the common size for 
weighing groceries ; as often as these last are used to weigh 
pounds the others are required for ounces of gold dust, for 
that is the circulating medium. Coin will not answer one- 
tenth part of the demand, and as for bank bills, these shin- 
plasters have not yet made their appearance on this side of 
the continent. It requires practice to fix the quality and price 
of the dust, and this is one of Mr. F.'s good qualities ; miners 
never dispute his assay. 

A few days before I came here the trades held a meeting 
for the purpose of protecting themselves from the boat trad- 
ers, and made a law that no person should be allowed to retail 
from boats without a license. They cannot be blamed for this, 



84 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

for a great number of whaleboats are employed in bringing 
up goods from Sacramento. They are generally owned by 
three mates of ships, two to row and one to steer. They buy 
in Sacramento a boat load of such goods as they know are 
scarce here, and if the traders here will "not buy their load when 
they arrive they turn it out on the river bank and undersell 
them. I am doing the same thing, but I consigned my goods to 
Mr. F. and pay him a commission on what he sells for me. 

Well, the 5th day of May was the time fixed for the law to 
go into force. So in the morning, when we boat-traders had 
get our goods placed on the levee, the sheriff came along, ac- 
companied by a party of the shop-keepers, and began tumbling 
into the river the goods of those who had not paid $500 for a 
license. I knew that the place had not been incorporated, and 
when they came to my pile the shop-keepers had surrounded my 
stock and fancied they were going to finish me at once. The 
sheriff asked for my license and I coolly asked him if Marysville 
was a city, town or borough ; he was obliged to say that it was 
neither. "Who then," said I, "has any authority to put any 
restriction on trade? You are but an assemblage of traders — 
people located here without any power to make any municipal 
regulations, and I have as much right to trade from my vessel 
as you from your tents, and you injure my property at your 
peril." 

Mr. Farish, hearing the altercation, came out and claimed 
the goods as consigned to him, and away sneaked the sheriff 
with his posse at his heels. They did not trouble any more boat- 
men, who all went on trading as before, and swore if the sheriff 
came there again they would put him where he had put some 
of their goods, overboard. The next day all I had left was 
bought by the storekeepers. 

Towards evening they are obliged to burn sawdust and peat 
in their canvas shops to smoke away the mosquitoes, but as to 
the fleas, they are smoke-proof, and won't be driven away any- 
how. Rats were also extremely numerous in all the towns and 
cities of California. 

One day while I was in Marysville a cold-blooded murder 
was committed, which, for the slightness of the provocation and 



A PROFIT 85 

the heartless indifference of the assassin, must be considered 
without a parallel, even in California. Two friends from one 
of the Western States came here together and went to mining; 
each one took up a claim to himself; one was unfortunate, the 
other successful. The unfortunate individual borrowed $50 
from his friend. After a while they met in this place. The 
lucky man, having "made his pile," was about to return home, 
and demanded his money from the other. The poor man had 
not the means to pay, and his "friend" required that he should 
give him his note, payable on demand. This he refused to do. 
supposing that the holder would take it home and distress his 
wife. After some altercation, the lender drew a revolver and 
presenting it to the other's breast again demanded the note, say- 
ing, "Your note or your life." The borrower still refused. 
"Take that then," exclaimed the villain, and before any of the 
passers-by could interfere he shot his victim through the heart, 
killing him instantaneously. He was immediately seized, under- 
went a preliminary examination and was committed to the prison 
brig at Sacramento to await trial at the next session of the court. 
This did not take place for two months, by which time the wit- 
nesses were not to be found and the murderer could not be con- 
victed for want of evidence. It is a common saying that a thief 
or a murderer runs no risk of conviction or getting his deserts 
from a court of law. Can it be any wonder then that an out- 
raged community should take the law into their own hands, and 
punish offenders without waiting the slow and uncertain process 
of legal investigation? The safety of life and property de- 
mands it. 

Having disposed of my goods at a profit of $2,500, I left 
Marysville on my return to San Francisco for another load. 
"What !" you exclaim, "undertake another such voyage ; you 
must be crazy," and so I was, and so were seven-eighths of the 
people in California. It was a saying of the black Emperor of 
Saint Domingo, Christophe, "Hang a bag of coffee at the gate 
of Hell and a score of Yankees will break their necks in the 
race to be the first to snatch it away." The first voyage I went 
to sea was a very perilous one, and I thought if I got safe home 
again nothing could induce me to try another, but I had not 
been at home a week before I forgot the hardships I had en- 



86 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

dured and the risks I ran, and made an engagement for a sec- 
ond. 

And now, my trials on this river o'er, 

All ending in a gain, 
I'm bound to try my luck once more, 
In spite of wind and rain. 

For the rainy season is approaching, when there will be wind 
enough to drive the mosquitoes to Jericho. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

I left Marysville on the 15th of May and dropped down about 
two miles, where there was a cluster of about twenty houses stand- 
ing on the bank of the other river. This was the City of Yuba. 
I found no business going on here, nor was there any hotel or 
gambling hell; all was quiet, it is too near to Marysville. I 
found here my friend, Chas. H. Porter, of Newburyport. The 
speculators who started this place found him out at Sacramento 
with a brig's cargo of lumber at his disposal, and induced him 
to build two stores here, by giving him the lots. He built them 
when lumber was worth $500 a thousand, and, like everything 
a Porter undertakes, they are finished and decidedly the best 
buildings in the place, but they have never been occupied, and 
never will be till they are removed to Marysville. 

Four days' drifting down with the current brought me to 
the outlet of the Sacramento, and after two days' beating through 
Suisun, Pablo and Francisco bays I arrived once more at the 
City of Wonders, but it was not the same place that I had left 
six weeks previously. It seemed to me that the number of 
buildings had doubled, and that notwithstanding they had had 
a great fire during my absence, neat-looking cottages were 
perched up on the elevated backgrounds. A substantial wharf 
was run out one-third of a mile over the flats, and two streets 
had been built on piles across the bay in front of Montgomery 
Street, and were crowded with warehouses. Montgomery Street 
that then fronted and was occupied altogether by grocers was 
now in the center of the city, and had become another Wall or 
State Street, most of the buildings being now of brick and sup- 
posed to be fire-proof. This street I call the dividing line ; it 
separates the solid portion, or that part built on "terra firma," 
from the superficial, all to the north of this street standing on 
piles driven into the mud flats. At high water the sea is all 

87 



88 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

around and under these streets and buildings, and when the tide 
is out the effluvia from the mud, growing worse every day from 
the deposit of filth and offal, is most abominable. 

When I fitted up the Sophronia I had to do with a black- 
smith whose shop stood at the water's edge at the foot of Clay 
Street. I left his bill unpaid, and now I tried to find him, but 
he had been burnt out in the fire, and amid the confusion now 
going on in rebuilding it was no easy matter to hit upon an 
old location. At last I saw his jolly, rubicund face, overseeing 
the erection of a new building. "Hello!" says I, "and so you've 
moved further up town it seems." "No," said he, "confound 
the town, it has moved farther out, and now Othello's occupa- 
tion's gone." This was literally true. Another blacksmith had 
established himself away down on Long Wharf, and had cut off 
my friend's run of business, and he said he must try his luck at 
something else. 

On my return I found Messrs. Plummer and Kieth in sorrow 
and gloom on account of the melancholy end of their former 
associate, Mr. Stickney, a young gentleman from Boston. He 
retired from the concern in February and returned home, taking 
with him $25,000 as his share of a nine months' business. The 
next day after he arrived home he was found drowned in the 
mill pond. His young wife greeted him on his arrival with the 
present of her first born; he had a rare prospect of happiness 
before him, but, strange freak of human nature, he could not 
bear his prosperity and committed suicide. 

I learn that Mr. and Mrs. Bogert have separated and Mrs. 
B. is now keeping house for a bachelor. 

Young Tillman, too, had left his laughing wife and gone to 
Trinity river, driven mad by his unfounded and foolish jealousy. 
I learn, too, that the widow Johnson soon found a solace for 
her wounded heart in the arms of another husband. But oh ! 
the fickleness of fortune and womankind ! The sweet solace 
soon soured. They found they could not pull together, and so 
concluded they had better pull apart. The husband, a brawny 
Dutchman, has gone about his business, and "Mine Vrow" is 
now keeping a doubtful resort. Still another domestic squabble. 
Capt. White and his little Spanish wife, whom I took on board 



CONFLAGRATION 89 

the Alhambra at Rio Janeiro, have had a flare up. He squatted 
in "Happy Valley," built himself a comfortable house and a 
small vessel for the river trade. But he found his better half 
unfaithful, and they too separated. 

Mr. Ladd had built himself a comfortable cottage up on the 
background and was living very prettily. Mrs. Lane and Mrs. 
Cumstock were coining money by use of the needle. Ladies' 
fingers were talismans. The houses, instead of being lathed and 
plastered, were lined with cotton cloth, and the demand for 
women to sew the breadths together could not be supplied. To 
run two breadths together, the charge was the price of the cloth. 
John Barker and his wife set up a laundry, and had as much 
as they could do at $6 a dozen. 

I have said that a destructive conflagration had consumed 
a large portion of the city during my absence up the river. This 
was the second devastating fire that had occurred. The first 
was on the 27th of December, 1849. It was then the rainy 
season, yet still wet as everything was, upwards of two hundred 
buildings, such as they were, were swept off in two hours ; there 
were then no fire engines. The last fire was on the night of 
the 3rd of May. It took in the southwestern section of the city, 
and burnt down about three hundred buildings and tents, but 
did not reach the merchants' warehouses. 

But I have now to record a scene of conflagration that no 
pen can adequately describe, and my attempt compared to the 
reality will be a firecracker to a volcanic eruption. It hap- 
pened on the 13th of June, 1850. It was mail day, and I had 
gone early to the postoffice to deposit my letters. The postoffice, 
for the convenience of the public, had been perched away up on 
the back hill half a mile from Montgomery Street, and over- 
looked every other building in the city. It was to open at 8 
a. m. I arrived at half-past seven and found there two long 
lines of waiting depositors extending from the two windows in 
single file some eight or ten rods down the hill. 

Just as the window slides were drawn the alarm bell of the 
Montgomery engine house rang out its frightful ding-dong- 
clang. Looking down the hill I saw a volume of black smoke 
bursting out of the bakery of the "Sacramento House" (a large 



9 o A PIONEER VOYAGE 

hotel that stood on the eastern side of Portsmouth Square). 
In an instant that square was a dense mass of human beings. 
The postoffice files were broken "instanter" ; engine men and 
traders dashed down the hill like an avalanche. I deposited my 
letters and started to assist my friends, Plummer and Kieth. 
Certainly fifteen minutes had not elapsed when, through smoke 
and fire and confusion indescribable, I reached their store just 
in time to assist Mr. Kieth in removing a chest containing 
$30,000 in gold dust. It was a lug, but we managed to drag it 
down on to the lower end of Howison's pier, where it could be 
thrown overboard as a last resort. 

The fiery northwester had commenced earlier than usual, 
and the leaping flames had seemed to seize every building in its 
range at once, and it was at once seen that nothing could stay 
the furious element. A fire engine was of no more use than 
an old maid's teapot. 

Leaving Mr. Kieth mounted on his box of gold dust, I went 
over to Long Wharf to look out for my sloop, which lay there, 
among about fifty other small craft, in the mud with no water 
within a cable's length. Between the pier and wharf the com- 
munication was by a narrow causeway in front of the large 
building of the Pacific Steamship Company and another large 
building occupied by the military quartermaster. The former 
was in flames and a posse of men were engaged in the futile 
attempt to save the merchandise stored there by throwing it into 
the dock, where it was all burnt up before the flood tide 
came in. 

By great exertion I forced my way through the confusion, 
and smoked and scorched I reached my sloop, just as a car-man 
came driving furiously down the wharf and dumped a large mil- 
itary chest at my feet, and drove as furiously back. I looked 
at the box and saw that it was marked "gunpowder." I gave 
the alarm and two or three of my neighbouring boatmen coming 
to my assistance, we pitched it overboard and buried it in the 
mud. I then cut my sloop sails from the spars and put them 
under deck, and, jumping into the dock, with my shovel I 
covered her decks with soft mud. 

The quartermaster's warehouse was said to contain five thou- 



CONFLAGRATION 91 

sand stands of loaded muskets; the constant discharging of 
these muskets would at any other time have sounded like a mili- 
tary engagement, but amid the roar of this awful conflagration 
they were not heard, though from where I stood, within fifty 
yards of the building, the rapid and constant succession of 
flashes showed that they were being discharged. Now this was 
a nervous situation, but fortunately no one was injured from 
that source of danger. Our escape was owing to the fact that 
these muskets were fitted perpendicular in racks, so that the 
balls were thrown out in an elevated direction. 

Portsmouth Square formed the south side of an extensive 
range of blocks of buildings, with Clay Street for the east and 
Washington for the west sides and Montgomery Street on the 
north. From the Sacramento House the flames leaped to the 
roof of the City Hotel, which made the corner of the square 
with Clay Street ; from thence they threw their dreadful arms 
of destruction down Clay to Montgomery, and leaped from hotel 
to hotel along the square to the El Dorado, which formed the 
corner of the square with Washington Street. Down this street 
they ran in mad career to Montgomery and along Montgomery 
to Clay, enclosing a space of ten acres thickly studded with 
warehouses filled with valuable merchandise. The whole of this 
mass seemed to burst into flames at once, like so many monster 
stacks of straw ; all was clear at the head of the wharf and a 
hundred feet of the wharf itself was burnt. The wharf was 
a continuation of Clay Street, and about five hundred of us were 
thus cut off from communication with the city, and we had noth- 
ing to do but stand and gaze at the devouring monster, who 
at every blast of the hurricane came surging down the wharf 
in clouds of smoke and cinders, obliging us to lie flat on our 
faces. 

The fire had now reached the extensive premises of Sim- 
mons, Hutchinson & Co., S. H. Williams & Co., and McCondray 
& Co. These were the three most important mercantile houses 
in the city, and the merchandise in these warehouses was of 
immense value ; they were east of Clay Street and fronted the 
bay. In an hour they were all a heap of ashes, except the 
pyramids of lumber piled up in their yards ; probably a million 



92 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

feet of boards and plank were stacked up here. The scene was 
awfully sublime when these pyramids of lumber got well on 
fire; they continued burning for several days, and when every- 
thing else was swept away they stood like fiery giants, with 
innumerable arms and tongues of flame, constantly spitting out 
flashes and cinders, as the knots and slivers snapped and cracked, 
sounding as if all the firecrackers in China were being let off 
at once. To my fancy they seemed the Genii of the catastrophe, 
standing there for three days and nights gloating over the gen- 
eral destruction, till at last the same devouring element having 
eaten them off their balance, they toppled and fell in a crash of 
fire and smoke, the grand finale to a most stupendous pyrotech- 
nic exhibition. 

Williams' warehouse stood at the corner of California Street 
and the dock; this street being very wide and the wind not 
blowing in that direction, the fire did not cross that street, and 
thus Happy Valley was saved. To the astonishment of every 
one, the fire did not cross to the north of Montgomery Street, 
west of Long Wharf, although to the east of the wharf all was 
cleared off. Had the large wooden store of Hussey, Bond & 
Hale, which formed the western boundary of the wharf, taken 
fire, had the fiery demon not been stayed by a merciful Provi- 
dence, for human power was of no avail, it would have found 
an immense addition of fuel in the large store ship Niantic, 
which lay directly in range. This vessel contained nearly two 
thousand tons of merchandise, most of it of a peculiarly com- 
bustible nature, including two hundred casks of gunpowder. 

To sum up all, this dreadful conflagration has burnt up 
the whole of Sacramento, Commercial and Clay, the southeast 
side of Washington, the north of California and the whole of 
Montgomery and Sansome streets, except the miraculously saved 
corner where lay the Niantic. These boundaries include nearly 
the whole of the business section of the city, and the destruc- 
tion of merchandise is not to be estimated. All this was the 
work of three hours; by noon there was nothing left but bricks 
and mortar and such articles as could not burn. 

But did the San Franciscans give up in despair at this, the 
third, time their city had been destroyed? Far from it. Even 



REBUILDING 



93 



while the fire was still raging contracts for new buildings were 
made, and before night men were engaged in clearing away the 
rubbish and teams were carting materials all about the ruins. 
The floor of a new El Dorado was absolutely laid before dark. 
At daylight the next morning a frame had been raised, and in 
one week the new establishment was in full blast, monte table 
and all. Several stores were up and occupied in three days, and 
in two weeks all was right again, except the bank buildings in 
Montgomery Street. They progressed more slowly, the proprie- 
tors being determined to have them fire-proof this time if it 
was possible. They thought they were so before, but they 
proved to be but match boxes in the terrible furnace that de- 
stroyed them. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

The day after this great fire, as I was strolling about among 
the ruins, I came across an acquaintance standing gazing at the 
spot where yesterday stood his store well stocked with goods. 
This man had been burnt out three times in the short space of 
six months. I accosted him jocosely, "Come," said I, "no 
dumps, up and at it again." "No," said he, "I am done for 
now ; between the two first fires I had time to recover myself, 
but from the 3rd of May to the 13th of June is not long enough; 
only let me have six months' interval and I shall be prepared, 
but forty days is not time enough. No, no, the risk is too great 
for me to try it again, and I shall sell my lot and try my fortune 
in some other place." 

Looking on and seeing how these people go on in building 
again after losing as they say all they had, it strikes me as some- 
what curious where the money comes from, for surely it is not 
so easy to raise money in California. The banks will not take 
these evanescent buildings as security. Where then does A, B 
and C get their means to go ahead again? I think I scent it. 
The losses have not been their own. They are nearly all com- 
mission merchants. They have not been any too prompt in 
making remittances to their constituents at home, but have de- 
posited the proceeds of sales, intending when they closed sales 
to remit the whole at once. Well, the fire has caught them in 
this situation, and affords an excellent opportunity to close ac- 
counts. Books and merchandise are all burnt, but the bankers' 
vaults are safe, and now come in play to start again with. It 
is not San Francisco that is burnt, but New York, Boston and 
the other cities on the Atlantic and in Europe. 

On my return from Marysville I found at San Francisco 
my nephews, George and Eben Noyes. Eben was engaged in 
a store as clerk at a salary of $100 a month, and George was 
speculating with what means he had. He was interested in the 
barque Byron and her cargo of lumber. She had unfortunately 

94 



IF! 95 

come here too late. There is such a thing as being too skittish 
or careful or shrewd in trade. Had the wise gentleman who 
own the Byron sent her out here early, at a time when they 
were not willing to believe the stories that were told, and called 
it all humbug, they might have realized a profit of $50,000, 
whereas it is now doubtful if they come out without loss. 

And here I cannot help remarking that if the Alhambra had 
been loaded with lumber and a New Orleans assortment the 
owners would have cleared a quarter of a million dollars, and 
if I could have been intrusted with the consignment my per- 
quisites would have amounted to $30,000, for when I arrived 
lumber was worth $400 a thousand, pork was fifty cents a bar- 
rel, molasses one dollar a gallon, sugar twenty-five cents a pound 
and butter, lard and cheese one dollar, and commission was 
fixed at ten per cent. 

Oh! That abominable if! 

I had anticipated that my lighters would have earned me a 
handsome sum during my absence, but I was disappointed. I 
learned that as soon as my back was turned towards San Fran- 
cisco Capt. Thurlo put on his kid gloves and acted the foolish 
gentleman or the genteel fool, employed some sailors to work 
the scow, neglected his business, lost my old customers and 
finally gave up the lighters with a Flemish account to George 
Noyes, and shipped as mate of a brig, and went off to Oregon. 
So many shipmasters and mates had become engaged in that 
business that it has got to be run down, and I decided to set out 
and confine myself to the river trade. An unfortunate de- 
cision. 

Two of the tenders had been lost or stolen and one of the 
scows had been smashed, and it cost me $300 to repair her. I 
put them up at auction, and they brought me $1,025. They had 
cost me, with the tenders and outfit, $3,600. I loaded the So- 
phronia with corn and potatoes, made a trip to Sacramento, was 
absent a fortnight, and cleared $1,200. 

The parties who fixed up the Sophronia had built a fine 
sloop of twenty-five tons, well suited to the river trade, which 
they urged me to purchase, and in an evil hour I consented. 
The price was $4,100, one-third cash, the balance payable in 



9 6 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

four and six months. Full of hopeful enterprise, I loaded both 
sloops for Marysville, and employed three young Germans (to 
whom I had sold the Alhambra long boat for $1,000) to navi- 
gate the Sophronia, and took with me in the Merlin a man by 
name of Louis Martin, or Martin Lewis, he did not know which, 
whom I found living with George Noyes and Capt. E. Welch 
on board the old brig Adelaide of Newburyport in true Cali- 
fornia style. He had formerly been in the employ of Capt. I. N. 
Cushing, and came out here to make a fortune or find a grave. 
His fate was the latter. 

On the morning of the first of August I started from along- 
side the Adelaide, after partaking of a breakfast of fried fish 
and chocolate prepared by George N., having despatched the 
Sophronia two days previous with orders to wait for me at 
Sacramento. I had a fine breeze from the westward and went 
on swimmingly through the three bays, San Francisco, Pablo 
and Suisun, and at night brought up at the City of New York. 
It had made no advance and looked like Pompey in his barber 
shop waiting for a customer to be shaved. 

Next morning started again with a fresh breeze, and in two 
hours I entered among the trees of the river Sacramento. When 
I was here before the sun was bright, the air was seething with 
those pestiferous and inveterate tormentors of the human race, 
the mosquitoes; they must have been practicing on bullock's 
hides. My skin is like blotting paper to a cambric needle. They 
say nothing was made for naught, but I have never seen the 
individual who could tell what mosquitoes were made for. Na- 
ture provides every creature with means suited to circumstances, 
and the reason why these mosquitoes in California are furnished 
with such long stilettoes is, that before the Yankees came here 
their victims were the cattle of the country and the thick-skinned 
Indians. Philosophers tell us that it is only the females which 
thus torment; if this is so, they are only imitating the ladies 
of California. 

Now the sun is glaring, the air is suffocating, and the mos- 
quitoes, with fresh sharpened stilettoes, are as greedy as sharks ; 
I took the precaution to provide myself with a hood of gauze, 
which I find very useful, but the infernal buzz of these pests 



SACRAMENTO AGAIN 97 

is the next annoying thing to their sting; they are all around 
my face and neck, singing, "Let me in, let me in." 

There is no wind, so there is no help for it. It is either 
warp and tie or be still and die from heat and vexation. I took 
the slough this time, and thus saved ten miles, and in ten days 
I reached Sacramento, where I found the Sophronia waiting for 
me to come along. 

This city has grown very much, although I can see that its 
growth is not what the traders expected. The fact is Marys- 
ville is going ahead with "seven leagued boots," and Sacramento 
is but the half-way house between that place and San Fran- 
cisco. 

The city government have voted to raise an embankment on 
the levee to guard against another overflow, and I found the 
harbour master traversing the levee accompanied by an auction- 
eer, selling off all the merchandise that had remained there over 
the allotted time. As they came opposite my sloop they came 
across ten casks of crockery and a butt of sperm oil. The 
harbour master called for an owner, no one appearing to claim 
them, the auctioneer mounted one of the casks, rattled his 
triangle, and then put them all up in a lot. Once, twice, and 
— gone for $350. Now the oil alone was worth nearly double 
that money. In this reckless manner they went on, clearing the 
levee of everything that had remained there over a week. 

I had on board the Merlin ten thousand pounds of potatoes, 
and fearing that they would rot in this hot weather I thought 
best to sell them here, and I took a sample to an auction then 
coming off under the hammer of Richard N. Berry, a man of 
some notoriety in Boston, but all right here. But they would 
not bring satisfactory prices. 

While standing at that auction I noticed a young man buying 
largely whose countenance seemed familiar to me, though I 
could not exactly place him, but as he caught my eye he offered 
his hand to me. I told him he had the advantage of me. 
"What!" said he, "don't you remember Tom?" "Tom!" says 
I, "what Tom?" "Why, Tom that came out with you in the 
Alhambra." He was one of my sailors, and the worst one I 
had on board. He had been to the mines, dug a little and then 



98 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

commenced trading in a small way, and was as large a merchant 
as any of them. He bid off flour by the one hundred sacks and 
sugar and coffee by the wagon load, and I could see that Dick 
Berry considered Tom a customer not to be slighted. 

Off again and up the dirty river. The Merlin was a broad 
and shallow craft, with a shallow keel, and a center board tra- 
versing on a pivot through the center. This center board was 
for the purpose of keeping the sloop from drifting sideways. 
When the wind was ahead and when in shallow water it was 
drawn up by means of a chain fixed to the after end. Now in run- 
ning through the reach below the rival cities of Vernon and Fre- 
mont I had a smart breeze. As the sloop was going at a rapid 
rate, she suddenly rounded to, in spite of the rudder, and stopped 
broadside to the current, and all my attempts to get her off 
again upon her course were unavailing. The center board being 
down, had caught hold on something on the bottom and held 
her fast. In trying to pull it up the chain broke and here we 
were in a pretty fix. I was obliged to under-run the sloop with 
a line and bring up one end on each side, and after two hours' 
work we got the center board raised and started again; but 
every time the keel passed over anything on bottom the line 
would be drawn out of place, and down would go the center 
board. 

By dint of warping, poling, rowing and sailing we reached 
Nicolaus in eight days from Sacramento. As I passed Vernon 
and Fremont I could see no alteration. There were the same 
tavern signs, and the same great piles of lumber, and the old 
barque was still lying moored abreast of Fremont, probablv 
with the view of making that city look like a seaport. But 
in this respect Nicolaus has outstripped them, for a barque and 
a brig are lying alongside the bank here. So Fremont hide your 
diminished head, for Nicolaus is the head of navigation. 

I looked in vain for Doctor Tappe and his domestic estab- 
lishment. They had "vamoosed the ranch," wife, dog, cabbages 
and all. Here I received a visit from the Indian chief opposite 
and his wife or squaw and two young papooses, revolting speci- 
mens of humanity; the woman was half naked and the children 
entirely so. He brought a bear's cub, in hopes that I would 



A WRECK 



99 



buy it. He had money (Mexican) and bought of me three 
sacks of flour and some molasses. 

The river had now fallen very much, exposing the limbs 
and trunks of numerous great trees lying prostrate in the stream, 
making the navigation difficult and dangerous. As I came in 
sight of "Plumas" I had a light breeze up the river, and giving 
the helm to Louis I stationed myself on the end of the bowsprit 
to look out for snags. The water was clear, so that we could 
see any danger in season to avoid it. 

We were going on at about the rate of three miles an hour, 
and I felt encouraged at the prospect of making one good day's 
trip. It was breakfast time, and I left the boy on the lookout, 
and went to the cuddy for a cup of coffee; I had finished my 
breakfast and was lighting my segar, a dear and costly segar 
it proved, when I felt the sloop hit a snag. I did not suppose 
that the blow had force enough to cause any injury, and was 
busy in running out a line to haul her off, when passing aft I 
cast my eye down the cuddy hatch and saw that the cabin was 
half full of water. I staggered and fell, for I saw at once that 
I was ruined. I had staked my all and twice as much more 
on this adventure, and had toiled through suffering almost unen- 
durable, buoyed up by the hope of all ending in a good 
profit, and then to have the prize, when almost within my grasp, 
thus suddenly snatched away by one cruel blow! It was too 
much! 



CHAPTER XIX. 

But I did not long lie idle and prostrate. I could not realize 
the full extent of the blow as it afterwards resulted. Although 
I knew that all my hard earnings in California were at once 
swept away, yet I hoped to be able to save enough from the 
wreck to pay my debts, and for the benefit of my creditors I 
resolved to do all I could. I had five thousand feet of pine 
boards on deck, and the first thing to be done was to make a 
raft of this. Another boat besides the Sophronia was near, 
and came to my assistance, and two Englishmen that were 
passengers, working heartily with us, we were not long in tum- 
bling out the lumber on which I hoped to be able to save some 
of my perishable goods, but before we could get at any of the 
cargo under deck she filled and sunk! 

Nothing more could be done at present, and the Englishmen 
left, their boat proceeding on up the river. There now lay 
the Merlin, her bows resting on an abominable snag, which 
had gone through her, and her stern on a sand bank, six feet 
under water! The sun was pouring down upon us his rays of 
molten brass, and the air was almost unrespirable, but my boys 
did not show any disposition to flinch, and to work we went 
with a will. 

I made a pair of shears with the main and square sail 
booms and erected on the bottom over the stern, and getting 
a sling under the keel, with a double buff tackle we succeeded, 
after much labour, in raising her stern so as to bring the deck 
even with the surface of the water. 

And now the object was to see if we could gain upon the 
leak by pumping and bailing. If we could not do this the game 
was all up, for it would cost more to get a steam boat and pump 
up from San Francisco than the property saved would be worth. 
With a good will my lads turned to. If the property had been 
their own they could not have shown more interest. For two 
hours we bailed with six buckets from the hatchway and the 

100 



GLOOM 101 

cabin without seeming to gain, but I had made a mark in the 
cabin as a gauge, and perceived that the water had fallen an 
inch. The boys were about giving it up as a hopeless job when 
I showed them my mark, and they went at it again like tigers, 
but even while they rested the leak had raised the water up to 
my mark again. 

Leaving them bailing I dug out cargo from the forward 
cuddy hatch, and working under water, after much labour, in 
which I was chilled through by the water which was the recently 
melted snow of the Sierra Nevada, made colder by contrast 
with the fervid atmosphere, I forced a passage to the starboard 
bow, and found the snag had made a hole through plank and 
ceiling. Feeling the extent of the injury, I made a wad of 
oakum and diving under the water I forced it into the hole 
from the inside. I did this so effectually that the lads began 
at once to gain rapidly upon the leak, and at sunset we had 
sucked the pump. 

So much labour at such a time had exhausted my compan- 
ions' strength, and I could not ask them to do anything more 
till they had taken some rest, and I let them all go to sleep, 
and kept the night watch myself. For me to sleep was impos- 
sible. I was now able to get at and stop the leak more thor- 
oughly, and it required but little pumping to keep her free. 

A sensitive mind may possibly have an approximating con- 
ception of what were my feelings on that dark and gloomy 
night — not weather dark and gloomy, for not a cloud obscured 
the heavens, and the moon and stars shone out as brightly as 
though nothing had happened. But my reflections were soul- 
harrowing. I thought of my faithful wife, and was harassed 
with the idea that I had neglected to send her money when I 
had it at command, and now it would be out of my power to 
do so. I had kept my earnings to operate with in earning more, 
with the hope of being able to return to the home of my heart 
at the end of the year with means to make that home cheerful, 
but now all hope was crushed. 

I am ashamed to write it, but the dreadful thought oppressed 
me that suicide would end all. Shakespeare's dagger gleamed 
before my burning eyes, and I asked, "whether 'twere better 



102 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

to bear the ills of life than by opposing end them." But the 
spirit of my father rebuked me, and I said, in view of his moun- 
tain of trouble and his cheerful resignation, shall I prove myself 
unworthy of such a stock? No! And I threw my loaded pistol 
overboard. 

Anti-tobacconists may preach of the pernicious effects of the 
weed. But all their arguments evaporated in the smoke of a 
bunch of Havanas, while during the longest night that ever 
darkened the waters of Feather river I listened to the growling 
of grizzly bears, the howling of coyotes and the hooting of 
owls perched upon the trees around, fit associates in my sad- 
ness. At length this night of nights wore away, and the morn 
awoke that called me to a day of super-human labour, that 
availed me nothing after all. 

At early daylight we turned to and loaded up the rafts with 
goods and took them down to a smooth sandy beach, about ten 
rods below, and opened out some bales of cotton cloth, which 
we spread on the sand, so hot as to dry it as fast as we could 
lay it down. On this we spread ten thousand pounds of corn, 
five thousand pounds of rice and coffee, beans, dried apples, 
raisins, etc., etc., besides forty thousand segars, which I spread 
out singly, in hopes to dry them so as to be salable at some 
price. 

While busy at this work a scream from the boy left on 
board to cook announced that the sloop was on fire! We hur- 
ried on board just in time to extinguish the flames after they 
had burnt up a large part of the mainsail and three dozen blan- 
kets, spread out on deck and on the spars and hung up in the 
rigging to dry. 

After three days' broiling on that scorching sand I thought 
the goods were dry enough to repack. In the meantime we 
had taken the Sophronia alongside the bank, discharged her 
cargo and loaded her with pork and potatoes, etc., from the 
Merlin, which enabled us to get her afloat. We hove her down 
and repaired the damage, then reloaded and started again on 
our wearisome trip; the trouble and difficulty of getting along 
was greater than I can describe. At Plumas I landed the deck 



RIVER WORK 103 

load of lumber and sent it up to Marysville by land, cartage 
$25 a thousand. 

After twelve days more of river work I reached the rapids 
which are opposite to Yuba City. We could not surmount this 
hill of water without help, and I went on shore to procure as- 
sistance. The first person I met was my friend C. H. Porter. 
He went with me to an Indian rancheria near by. I gave the 
chief ten dollars, and he sent a posse of his subjects to tug us 
over. I say his subjects, for no government on earth is more 
absolute than his. His name was Walkitaw and his word is fixed 
law. With the help of these Indians we succeeded in getting both 
sloops above the rapids by sunset. 

At this low stage of the river the rapid was a mere race, 
about thirty feet wide, and a patriarchal sycamore lay prostrate 
in the bed of the stream, its great arms extending half way 
across the passage. To run my line up against the current was 
impossible, and two Indians took the coil upon their backs and 
waded up on a flat on the opposite side, made it fast to a tree 
at the point where the Feather and the Yuba meet, and swam 
down stream with the other end. Now just as we had tugged 
her into the middle of the rapids the sloop took a rank sheer, 
and shot in by a limb of the sycamore and brought up with her 
stem in the crotch. Her stern then swung in by another limb, 
unshipping the rudder and twisting off the head. I was holding 
the tiller and the concussion threw me into the river, six feet 
from the sloop. The current swept me down stream, but I 
can do my part in swimming (what boy raised in Newburyport 
cannot do that?), and I landed on the sand flat on the other 
side. 

Between the two limbs there now the Merlin lay in limbo, 
and the only way to get out of it was to cut off the great branch 
forward. After an hour's work the Indians did this under 
water. Then tugging her nose out of this, the rapid current 
caught her on the starboard bow, and having no rudder to keep 
her straight, she shot over on the sand flat, and she ran her 
bows a foot out of water. Lashing a leading block to the end 
of the bowsprit, and reaving the warp line through that, with 
a double luff tackle we forced her off and succeeded in getting 



io 4 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

above the rapids. The Sophronia was gotten over with less 
difficulty, and after this it was but little labour to reach Marys- 
ville. 

While busy in the rapids I missed my mate Louis, and found 
him down in the hold, lying on some bags of rotting potatoes; 
he had given up sick. I got him up and made him sit under 
an awning, and as soon as I could get on shore I got a physician 
to look at him. He gave him some pills, said he had no fever, 
and a day or two of rest would bring him round all right again. 
At night he appeared to be better, and asked me for some bread 
and milk. I gave him a teacup full, and he lay down and, as I 
thought, went to sleep. I was worn out myself and went to bed 
early. About ten o'clock the skipper of the Sophronia woke 
me, and said Louis appeared to be worse. I spoke to him, but 
got no answer. I went immediately to the doctor, who came 
in ten minutes, but poor Louis had yielded up the ghost. He 
was a man of few words, and when he did speak it was in such 
a mumbling way that I could scarcely understand him. I never 
heard him say anything about his domestic concerns, and did 
not know that he was a married man till my return to San 
Francisco after three months' absence. 

The next day after I reached Marysville every other indi- 
vidual on board both sloops was taken down with fever, and I 
had them all to nurse for a week. I had thus my hands too 
full to think of being sick myself. 

I was obliged to employ labourers at one dollar an hour to 
discharge my sloops, and now I found that all my hard labour 
and exposure on that burning sand had been of but little benefit. 
My potatoes were so much decayed that I did not realize enough 
for them to pay the expense of picking them over. If sound 
they would have brought me twenty cents a pound. The corn 
and rice were mouldy; spices and fruit spoilt; sugar, salt and 
saleratus dissolved, and some chests of tea, which I did not 
open, supposing them to be watertight, were entirely worthless ; 
and the segars that I took so much pains with were all matted 
together in the boxes, and I threw them all into the river. If 
I had come up safe and in a reasonable time I should have 



M ARYS VI LLE AGAIN 105 

made a great voyage, but as it is, the report of my having been 
snagged renders it difficult for me to sell even what is sound. 

As soon as the lads on board the Sophronia began to gather 
strength again I despatched them on their return to San Fran- 
cisco, with instructions to employ her in the freighting busi- 
ness to Stockton, and remained myself at Marysville to make 
the most of my shattered interests. 



CHAPTER XX. 

The next day, while sitting in Mr. Farish's store, I felt an 
indescribable sensation of chilliness creeping through my sys- 
tem. I went out and stood in the burning sun to get thawed 
out, but it was no go, I grew every moment more chilly. I 
went on board, turned in, and covered myself with blankets, 
but as for warmth I might as well have crept under sheets of 
ice. I sent for Mr. Farish, who said I had the real true blue 
fever and ague and no mistake. He sent me a bottle of Doctor 
Osgood's Indian Chorugogue, which is represented as a "sov- 
ereign remedy." 

After shivering and shaking for about two hours my nerves 
relaxed and a gentle warmth succeeded, which grew momen- 
tarily warmer, then hot and hotter, till I was in a raging fever, 
and then it seemed as though I could drink the Yuba dry. At 
length, towards night, the fever subsided, and I was all right 
again. For the first time in my life I had gone through a fit 
of chills and fever. 

They told me it might come on again on the second or per- 
haps not till the third day. But my attacks seemed destined to 
make up for my former exemption. It returned again at the 
same hour on the next day. Again I took the chorugogue, 
although the doctor says on the envelope that one dose is suffi- 
cient. Faith, I think so, for I have since learnt that one of the 
ingredients is arsenic. I believe that quack medicines are only 
intended for the credulous, and their virtue consists in the name. 
We have panaceas, catholicons, chorugogues and hydrophlogar- 
tionics. Shade of Hippocrates! what a name! It ought to an- 
nihilate all the ills that flesh is heir to. Had Pandora antici- 
pated this she would never have raised the lid of her box. 

My ague returned daily for a week, commencing later every 
day, which they told me was a good sign, till at length a short 
fit of ague left me in a settled fever. I sent for Capt. Powers, 
a gentleman whose acquaintance I had formed on my first visit. 

106 



CROSSING THE PLAINS 



107 



He took me up to his house, where I was kindly and attentively 
nursed by his wife and her daughter, and in ten days the fever 
left me, giving place to an attack of chronic diarrhea, which 
hung about me for three months, and reduced me very much. 

I have mentioned Mrs. Powers' daughter. She was a mar- 
ried lady twenty-four years old, with three little children, with 
whom she had traveled across the plains. Her name was Nancy 
Haight, and this is her history: 

She was the eldest of two girls, daughters of Mrs. Powers 
by a former husband. They are very beautiful, and the mother 
must have been surpassingly so. She is now a splendid woman 
and remarkably energetic. They came from Illinois. Capt. 
Powers is a native of Newburyport, but emigrated to Illinois 
when a boy. 

Nancy was married at the age of sixteen years to Capt. 
Haight, commander of one of the Mississippi steamers. The 
families came to this country soon after the gold fever broke 
out, in company with a large party of relatives and neighbours, 
by the overland route, starting from Fort Independence in Mis- 
souri, in May. They were amply supplied with everything to 
make them comfortable, even covered wagons with beds for the 
women and children. 

For the first month, while crossing the plains, the journey 
would have been a mere pleasure trip, a lengthened picnic, had 
it not been for the cholera. That dreadful scourge had ascended 
the river from New Orleans, and overtook them on the route 
and committed dreadful ravages among them. One young wo- 
man buried her husband and two children and came to Cali- 
fornia a widow. But she did not long remain so. She was 
soon married to one of the proprietors of Marysville, said to be 
worth $150,000. She is a frequent visitor at Mrs. Powers', and 
as I saw her there one day, richly dressed and talking nonsense, 
I thought to myself, can this be possible? 

The cholera disappeared when they reached Fort Laramie, 
at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. The trials and hardships 
of the rest of the journey are so well described by Bayard 
Taylor that I transcribe from his book, "The El Dorado." He 
says: 



108 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

"After passing Fort Laramie the real hardships of the jour- 
ney began, up and down the mountains that hem in the Sweet 
Water valley. Over the spur of the Wind River chain, through 
the Devil's Gate, and past the stupendous mass of Rock Inde- 
pendence, they toiled slowly up to South Pass, then descended 
into the valleys of the tributaries of the Colorado, and plunged 
into the rugged defiles of the Timpanesee Mountains. Here the 
pasturage became short, and the companies were obliged to sep- 
arate in order to find sufficient grass for their teams. Many 
who in their anxiety to get forward had thrown away their sup- 
plies, began now to want, and were frequently reduced to the 
necessity of making use of their mules and horses for food. 

Descending to the great basin which is the interval between 
the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, they find that a 
gracious Providence had, in dispersing the fanatic Mormons 
from New Lebanon, caused them to settle in this basin, beside 
an inland sea called the Great Salt Lake. 

There this community of religious enthusiasts, numbering 
about ten thousand, had established themselves in a grand val- 
ley a thousand miles from any other civilized spot, to raise 
supplies to keep this immense army of emigrants from starva- 
tion. Without this resting place in mid journey their sufferings 
would have been greatly aggravated. 

But the worst was yet to come. Crossing the alternate 
sandy wastes and rugged mounts of the great basin to the valley 
of Humboldt River, they were obliged to trust entirely to their 
worn and weary animals for reaching and crossing the Sierra 
Nevada before the winter snows. The grass was scarce and 
now fast drying up in the scorching heat of midsummer, and 
in the endeavors to hasten forward to get the first chance of 
pasture many again committed the same mistake of throwing 
away their supplies. The progress along the valley of Hum- 
boldt River was slow and tiresome in the extreme. From this 
they have before them an arid desert of from fifty to eighty 
miles in breadth to traverse without food or water for their 
cattle before they reach the streams that are fed from the Sierra 
Nevada. The passes are described as terribly rugged and pre- 
cipitous, leading directly up the snowy ridge to the altitude of 



MARRIAGE TROUBLES 109 

8,000 feet. Having, with infinite toil, reached at last the divid- 
ing range, they find they have yet a hundred miles of mountain 
country to traverse, through snow and storm, before reaching 
the descent to the valley of the Sacramento. The descent is 
rendered hazardous and almost impassable by precipices and 
steeps of naked rock. In getting down there, they were often 
obliged to lock their wheels and clog their vehicles with timber 
and lower them down with ropes. Towards the end of the 
journey, the sufferings of many were indescribable, they perished 
by hundreds from cold and starvation, and many were too late 
and got locked up in impenetrable snows to linger out a few days 
or perhaps weeks and die." 

Now, Mrs. Haight experienced all these but the last in her 
miserable journey of six months; and, more than all the rest, 
in the middle of the worst part of the route, an unhappy differ- 
ence arose between her and her husband. Capt. H. was more 
attentive to some other young ladies of the party than his wife 
thought and I think he ought to have been, leaving her to trudge 
up and down the steeps with her three children, one of which, 
and sometimes two, she was obliged to carry in her arms. This 
unfortunate breach in their relations, which might have been 
healed, grew wide and wider, as often happens with two proud 
and sensitive people. Neither party was willing to acknowledge 
anything wrong, or make the first advance towards a reconcilia- 
tion, and thus the miserable journey passed and they arrived at 
Sacramento married enemies. 

Capt. Haight betook himself to the mines, and Mrs. H., too 
proud-spirited to be a burden to her father-in-law, went down 
on the levee, hired a brig and had a house built upon her deck, 
and opened a boarding and lodging house, managing it herself, 
besides taking care of her three children. She was successful 
and collected a very handsome sum in a few months, when, 
Capt. Powers having fixed upon Marysville as his residence, she 
was able to assist him in building a comfortable house, where I 
found them living and where I was so kindly nursed by Mrs. 
Haight. I certainly thought her a ministering angel. 

I did not then know anything of her domestic affairs, but 
one day Capt. Haight came down from the mines and his wife 



no A PIONEER VOYAGE 

shut herself up in her room and would not see him, and, after he 
had gone, I asked Mrs. Powers what this meant, and she told me 
the story as I have related it. But, alas for human nature ! here 
ends the story of Nancy's virtues. What follows is from my 
own knowledge. 

Capt. Powers was keeping a private boarding house, and 
among his boarders was a sort of a "Caleb Quotem," who, be- 
sides being a doctor, was peddler, jockey and auctioneer; in 
short, he was factotum. He had cast his blasting eyes upon 
Mrs. Haight. He kept a livery stable and furnished Mrs. H. 
with a saddle horse, and used often to accompany her on an 
afternoon drive, from which they sometimes did not return till 
10 or ii o'clock. I thought this very imprudent in Mrs. H., but 
could not imagine anything criminal. This went on till about 
a fortnight before I left Marysville, when, one morning, to the 
astonishment of every one, the newspaper announced the mar- 
riage of Dr. O. H. Pierson and Mrs. Nancy Haight! A secret 
decree had been obtained from a licentious judge, granting Mrs. 
H. a divorce from her former husband, which he did not oppose. 

Capt. Haight was now running a small steamer on the river, 
and one day, while "Caleb Quotem" was busy with- his petty 
auction, the captain went to their house to see his children. 
While he was there the doctor came home and ordered him to 
leave the house. Instead of doing so, he seized the guilty 
ravisher by the collar, dragged him to the door, pointed him 
right, and sent him sprawling into the middle of the street. 

The wife of both now interfered, but he to whom she had 
surrendered her young heart, and sworn to love, honour and 
obey till death — he who had sworn to comfort and cherish her 
through life — put her gently aside, saying, "Madam, I don't 
know you." Alas, poor Nancy! 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Mr. Joseph B. Hervey came to Marysville when I had begun 
to recover, and we went together to see the elephant; that is, to 
take a look at the diggings. Mr. Farish kindly offering to be 
our guide, we chartered three mules and rode out through a 
very romantic country about twenty miles to a spot called Segar's 
Bar. This is a bank of gravel and rock in the bed of the Yuba. 
Here a party of twenty had squatted ; they had built a dam nearly 
across the stream, leaving a sluiceway about ten feet wide on 
one side to carry by the stream. This was a very rich spot, and 
they had been for some time collecting about forty pounds a 
day of gold in dust and ingots ; by means of bars they overturned 
great boulders, and generally found a deposit of gold under 
them. 

Just above that bar there was another, supposed to be equally 
as rich. Another company had monopolized this, and had built 
their dam and nearly finished their sluiceway. There was one 
share in this bar for sale, and Mr. H. and I thought of buying it. 
The price was $2,000. We, however, returned to Marysville 
without concluding the purchase, and the next day the first of 
the autumn rains came on earlier than usual ; it continued three 
days, the river rose ten feet, and the rush of water swept away 
their dam, destroyed their summer's work and upset all their 
calculations for this season. 

There were other parties at work on their side claims. A 
side claim is one rod measured off on the bank of the river. 
They dig into the bank and carry the gravel to the water and 
wash out the gold by the rocker. This operation employs six 
hands ; two to dig, one to wheel the dirt to the rocker, the fourth 
to shovel it into the hopper of the machine, the fifth keeps pour- 
ing in water, and the other rocks the cradle. The cradle is 
placed on a slight inclination, the lower end is open, three or 
four bars two inches high are fixed transversely across the bot- 
tom, the dirt and water fall through a sieve which is fixed in the 

111 



H2 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

hopper or hood of the cradle, and the rocking keeps the mass in 
motion. The gold being heavier than the dirt, settles to the 
bottom and is caught by the bars, while the dirt washes over and 
out at the lower end. 

Other parties were engaged in what is called "coyote dig- 
ging," which is digging a pit or well down through a level spot 
in some bend of the river. They dig through the alluvial deposit, 
in some places to a depth of thirty feet, to the bed rock, where 
they are pretty sure to get well paid for their labour. Others 
again were wandering up and down the margin of the river, 
watching with eagle eyes for the shining particles upon the sur- 
face, while a number of Indians were busy with their tin pans, 
wherever the whites would allow them to wedge in. The place 
was wild and rugged in the extreme; huge, precipitous hills on 
both sides, and the face of the river a mass of rocks from the 
size of an ox cart down to pebbles and gravel. 

On our return my mule seemed disposed to adopt his own 
rate of locomotion. I had worn out one stick about his hide, 
and, seeing a good one lying in the path, I dismounted to get it. 
To do this I had to go behind the animal, and just as I had 
picked up the stick and had raised myself to the perpendicular, 
Mr. Mule raised himself up on his forelegs, threw out his hind 
ones in a horizontal direction, and hit me a whopper in the 
lower part of the abdomen, sending me to measure my length 
backward upon the grass. Fortunately his hoofs were not shod, 
and very fortunately I am short in stature. 

On our way down we met a drove of fifty pack mules trot- 
ting along in single file, each with a pack saddle containing a 
load of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty pounds. They 
were bound to Nevada, fifty miles farther up, and, as its name 
implies, a region of perpetual snow. The price of transportation 
the muleteers said was twenty-five cents a pound. 

In introducing Mrs. Powers into this narrative I have said 
that she was an energetic woman. In addition to her household 
duties, having ten boarders, she managed a dairy of seventeen 
cows, and had regular customers for most of her milk, at sev- 
enty-five cents a quart, and the residue she sold to transient 
callers at one dollar a quart. Think of this, ye city dames, with 



KISSING A BOY 113 

your silks and satins, your novels, balls and your miserable 
ennui ! 

Sept. 20. — I stepped into the principal gambling saloon last 
evening as a looker-on. The place was, as usual, crowded. At 
one of the tables sat a very pretty boy, dealing out the cards, 
and the owner of the establishment sat next him. The lad was 
neatly dressed in white trousers, a little foot in a shining slipper, 
and an open-work sock exposed a well-formed ankle. He had 
a blue frock coat with small gold buttons, a buff vest thrown 
open in front. His shirt collar rolled down a la Byron, expos- 
ing a beautiful clear neck, down which hung a profusion of 
chestnut curls. 

The player who sat next to him threw his arm around the 
lad's neck and gave him a loving kiss. A terrible row followed 
immediately. The banker knocked the man down, but he got 
up again, drew his revolver and shot the gambler a flesh wound, 
and was about to repeat the fire when he was seized by the by- 
standers. The banker knocked him down a second time. The 
company took both sides and a general melee followed, with 
broken heads and bloody noses. 

And all about a man's kissing a boy! No. It was no boy 
at all. A respectable widow lady had come from Boston to 
mend her circumstances, bringing with her an only daughter 
about sixteen years of age. One reason for coming here was 
the hope of weaning her daughter's affections from a dissipated 
young man that was paying his addresses to her. She had been 
seduced by this rascally gambler and had run away with him. 
Her mother heard of her at this place and came up here and 
took her home to Sacramento, but the poor girl's ruin had been 
already effected and she returned to her infamy dressed in boy's 
clothing. Now she and her story attract more customers to that 
table than all the rest of them together. 

In the afternoon I took a stroll out to the burial ground, 
where lie the remains of poor Louis. It is about an acre of 
clay soil, baked as dry as lime rock, enclosed in a common rail 
fence. I would like to place a headstone there to mark this two 
by six feet home, but his doctor's bill and funeral charges ab- 



u 4 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

sorbed more than I owed him, and I have not the means. Poor 
Martin! "Requiescat in pace!" 

The two Englishmen who came to my assistance when on 
the snag I found here keeping a fruit stand in a tent on the 
square. They told me that when they landed here they had only 
three dollars between them. They went to work for a few days 
and gathered up a sum sufficient to start this business, and are 
in a fair way to get ahead. While I stood there talking with 
them a miner came along and asked the price of a pear. It was 
one dollar. He took the pear and threw down a dollar with 
as much difference as a child would give his cent for a stick 
of candy. 

Boys are carrying about baskets of wild grapes to the houses, 
and sell them at $1.50 a pound, and this notwithstanding the 
banks of the river are encumbered with grapevines and they are 
to be had for the gathering. While on this subject I remark 
that for remarkable size and richness of flavour the fruits and 
vegetables of California far surpass anything of the kind I have 
ever seen or heard of in any part of the world. It is no uncom- 
mon thing to see turnips and onions twelve or fifteen inches in 
diameter, and the San Francisco newspapers notice a beet, now 
on exhibition at the market house in that city, that weighs one 
hundred and forty-nine pounds and is as large as a flour barrel! 

Now, it at first seems matter of astonishment how such enor- 
mous vegetables can grow on a clay soil, baked by the scorching 
rays of an unobscured sun, without a drop of rain for six 
months. But break away the crusty surface, and remove the 
turnip carefully, and you find that from the center of the under 
side a little fiber, no bigger than a pipe stem, shoots down 
through the crust and draws sustenance from a depth of two or 
three feet. The grasses and cereals get their start during the 
latter part of the rainy season and come to maturity before the 
middle of the summer. Wheat yields a hundredfold, and con- 
tinues to produce for two more years without resowing. As for 
grapes and wild fruits, such as blackberries, raspberries, etc., 
they must be seen and tasted to be properly estimated. In regard 
to wine, California is to be to the Pacific what the south of 
Europe is to the Atlantic. 



RETURN TO MARYSVILLE 115 

I had been obliged to leave the disposal of my goods to Mr. 
Farish. He effected sales slowly, but as fast as he raised any 
money for me I sent it to my creditors in San Francisco. Herein 
I was wrong. The parties of whom I had purchased goods on 
credit knew that they could not be insured, and that in case of 
loss I should be unable to pay. They therefore took the risk 
into account in fixing prices, and in that sense they stood as 
underwriters. The proper course would have been first to reim- 
burse myself for my cash outlay, and then, if there was any 
surplus, to divide it among those I owed. But I was so broken 
by my misfortune as to be incapable of sound judgment, and 
very much needed a friendly adviser. 

Towards the end of September the cholera broke out in San 
Francisco and caused great trepidation. It instantly occurred to 
me that if the disorder should increase it would cause a great 
scattering and many would flee to the Sandwich Islands, and it 
would be a good time to put in execution an enterprise which 
Mr. Plumer had often talked to me about. This was to pur- 
chase a good ship and take her home by way of Honolulu, China 
or India. I was now exceedingly anxious to be on my way 
towards "home," and I went down to Sacramento to look at a 
fine barque that had been lying there some time for sale, but I 
was too late; she had been disposed of. 

On my return to Marysville I found my sloop and all my 
goods in the hands of the sheriff. Mr. Hudson, one of the firm 
of whom I had bought the sloop, had come up to this place, and, 
finding me absent, he supposed I was about to leave clandes- 
tinely (he did not know me), and sued, notwithstanding I had 
sent them $1,000, and he had attached all I had. Here, now, I 
was with all my goods taken out of my control and my sloop 
in limbo. I saw at once that after the lawyers, court and sheriff 
had taken their slices from the loaf there would be only the 
crust left, but I could not realize that the result would be so bad 
as it proved, and I made an arrangement with the sheriff to 
allow Mr. F. to go on selling, holding the proceeds subject to 
the order of the court. Capt. Powers and Mr. F. kindly offering 
to bond the sloop for me, I took her down to San Francisco 
in the hope of being able to use her to some advantage. 



n6 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

As I neared Sacramento I thought the city was on fire ; vol- 
umes of black smoke were rising from all quarters. The cholera 
had commenced its havoc and the health police were burning 
the masses of corruption in the streets. Everybody seemed to 
consider the highway as the common receptacle for all their 
animal and vegetable offal, and, the city being built on low and 
swampy ground, was just the place for the cholera to rage with 
its greatest virulence. Most of the places of business were 
closed, and three-fourths of the population had run off, in double- 
quick time, to the mountain elevations. One of the first victims 
to this cruel destroyer was Capt. William Rand, of Roxbury, 
an old acquaintance in the Russia trade. He was sailing a small 
schooner in the river business and was taken at nine o'clock in 
the evening and was a corpse before morning. I passed this 
nest of pestilence without stopping. 

As I passed Suisun Bay the air was filled with immense and 
countless flocks of wild geese just preparing to start on their 
southern migration, and as I approached the Straits of Car- 
quinez they were alighting in countless myriads on the coast 
opposite to Benicia. They had not yet become sufficiently ac- 
quainted with the common enemy, man, and suffered themselves 
to be taken by hand or knocked down with clubs. 

I arrived at San Francisco, from this unfortunate voyage, 
on the 15th of October, and found that so many small steamers 
had been built in a hurry and put into the river trade that the 
sailing craft were completely used up, and were lying all about 
on the flats abandoned. The Sophronia was laid up among the 
rest. She had made two trips to Stockton, but instead of earn- 
ing me anything, she had run me in debt a hundred dollars. The 
lad who had remained with me in the Merlin had a claim of 
$120 for wages, and I was obliged to sell the Sophronia at auc- 
tion. She brought $300. She had cost me nearly three thousand. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



A SPECULATION. 



Before I went to Marysville, as I was coming one day down 
Clay street, I passed an auction room where they were selling 
real estate. My star of destiny led me in. There was a fine 
map of San Jose, the capital of California, and the auctioneer 
was selling off city lots. Parties stood by, and as fast as the 
lots were put up, they were run up by them probably fictitiously, 
to entrap the unwary. 

Fool like I bid off seven lots in what appeared to be the heart 
of the city. I noticed that they were knocked off to me at prices 
considerably below what other lots not so well situated sold for, 
but this did not open my eyes. I paid $1,000 for the whole. 
Now, thought I, I am a landholder as well as the rest of you. 
I knew that lots in San Francisco that had been purchased for 
$100 had in a few months been resold for thousands, and I saw 
not why lots in the capital should not turn out as well. 

I sent my deed up to be recorded by an expressman, and gave 
him five dollars to pay for recording, with directions to leave 
the deed with Mr. Plummer on his return. Not finding the deed 
there on my return, I called at the express office ; it had changed 
hands and I could get no satisfaction. A few days afterwards 
I met a gentleman from San Jose and inquired about my lots. 
He said that if San Jose continued to be the capital of the state 
it might enlarge, so as in the course of twenty years to include 
my property, but that at present they were of no value whatever, 
and it was not worth my while to spend a dollar or an hour in 
hunting up the deed. The auction was a mere Peter Funk con- 
cern, and the parties who stood by and bid so voraciously were 
only decoy ducks, and whenever a bona fide bidder like myself 
appeared, they stood back out of charity. 

I had taken to my own account a lot of bread, beef and pork 
that had been left of the Alhambra's stores, and had shipped it 

117 



„8 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

to Panama, where, by the last account, it was much wanted, and 
I fully expected to find a good return awaiting me here, but the 
barque that took it down never returned and I never heard what 
became of her. 

San Francisco has continued to grow broader and deeper and 
more substantial. Montgomery street is now all rebuilt with 
fireproof buildings, that is, the walls are brick and from two to 
three feet thick; the doors and windows have iron shutters, the 
roofs are slated, the partition walls rising six feet above them ; 
there is no woodwork exposed. 

The city has very much altered in another respect. When 
I first came here there were no thieves or assassins, or, if there 
were, they could get their living so much easier in an honest way 
that it was not worth their while to run the risk of detection and 
punishment by lynch law. But now robberies, assaults and mur- 
ders are among the common occurrences of the times. With the 
immense immigration have come the rascals of all nations, the 
"most enlightened nation" furnishing by far the greatest number. 
England's convicts doomed to exile in Van Dieman's land have 
been set loose from Botany Bay, and have come here in droves. 

There is a low grog shop in Jackson street opposite the store 
of Messrs. Stuart and Raines. It is the headquarters of the Syd- 
ney convicts, a scene of drunken revelry and rascality. It is 
called the Port Philip House. Here is concocted most of the 
villainy that is now so rife, and from this den of infamy issue 
the rascals to execute it, and yet the police pay no regard to it. 
If a robber or even a murderer is by chance arrested, he is never 
brought to punishment; he either escapes from the rat-trap gaol, 
or, if brought to trial, he goes clear from some flaw in the indict- 
ment, or the witnesses are not to be found, or else, as some say, 
he bribes the officers of justice with his ill-gotten gains. "By 
hook or by crook" he escapes. 

This laxity on the part of the magistrates has at last aroused 
the indignation of the community, and induced a large portion of 
the respectable classes to form themselves into an association for 
the detection and prompt punishment of crime. They have 
styled themselves "The Committee of Vigilance," have adopted 
the most summary mode of proceedings and given public notice 



NO RAIN 119 

of their intentions. Woe be to the miserable wretches who may 
fall into their clutches. 

A party of four ruffians went on board the brig James Caskie 
in the night, attacked Capt. Jones in his cabin and left him for 
dead shut up in a stateroom, plundered his desk of what money 
he had on board and retired unmolested. Capt. Jones owes his 
recovery to his wife, who fortunately was with him. 

Not being able to obtain any freight for the Merlin, and it 
being necessary to deliver her in Marysville, I made an arrange- 
ment with Capt. William Le Craw for a load of lumber from 
his ship, and undertook another trip up the river. It was now 
the end of the year 1850, and in all the eighteen hundred and 
forty-nine years that had preceded it, never was one known to 
pass without its regular rainy season, raising the rivers in No- 
vember and keeping them up till May or June. Last year at 
this time a line of battleships might have floated up to Marys- 
ville. I fully expected that the southerly gales of winter would 
carry me up in a week, and started in hopes of making enough 
on my lumber to pay the expense of getting the sloop up, and 
leave me four or five hundred dollars to send to my wife. 

I took with me two lads at $100 each a month and an Irish- 
man to work his passage. But oh! my unfortunate career! 
On arriving at the mouth of the Sacramento, the wind left me, 
and throughout the months of January and February I toiled un- 
der a blazing sun without a cloud as big as a pocket handker- 
chief to be seen, not a drop of rain, and mosquitoes as thick and 
troublesome as they were in August. 

Towards the end of February I once more reached Nicolaus 
and found the river some inches lower than it was when here 
last. To get the sloop any further loaded was impossible, and I 
landed the deckload, and sent it along in teams at a cost of $25 
a thousand. There was no sale for it here, all building had 
ceased and "the city" was being unbuilt and transported to 
Marysville. I started again with a breeze, a dangerous breeze, 
for I had not advanced more than three miles before this ill- 
fated craft, drawing only three feet, ran her confounded nose 
against another unseen snag, stove a hole in her bow, and filled 
in five minutes, but being full of dry lumber she could not sink. 



120 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

If the craft had sunk in forty fathoms the first time she hit a 
snag, I should not have been the miserable wretch I was. We 
had but just time to get our beds and clothing out of the cuddy. 

The Irishman had an old India rubber tent. It was sunset 
and we took the tent on shore, and under that we stowed heads 
and heels for the night. In the morning, the sand all around 
was imprinted with tracks of grizzly bears that had come down 
to the river during the night. These animals seldom attack any 
one unless provoked. 

Paddy's tent had other inhabitants besides ourselves as I 
found by sundry hitherto unexperienced bites and nips of a pecu- 
liar sensation. They were neither fleas nor bedbugs, which in- 
duced me to examine my flannels. I found that I was harbouring 
a colony of those pestiferous little zoophites which the Latins 
called "Pediculus Humani Corporis." There was no way of 
abating this nuisance till I could get rid of Pat, and his services 
were too valuable to think of putting him on shore here. I shud- 
der now when I think of those parasites. 

By great exertion we got the sloop afloat and repaired the 
damage as well as we could under water, and pushed on again, 
but before night she poked her other cheek against another snag, 
smash went another hole, and once more she filled in a few min- 
utes. I believe I should now have abandoned her altogether if 
my friends at Marysville had not been liable for $2,000 to produce 
her at the call of the sheriff. I could not think of letting them 
suffer, and once more I got her off arid persevered against hope. 
She was now like a Chinese junk, she had a great eye on each 
bow, and as John Chinaman would say, "Now can see." 

She did not hit any more snags and the next day I tied her 
up at Plumas. As this place is in the same county as Marysville, 
I thought I could persuade the sheriff to receive her here, and I 
went up to Marysville with that in view. But it was no go, he 
required to have her placed where I took her from, and with a 
heavy heart I returned to wind up this miserable business. 

When I got back to Plumas there was a corpse hanging to 
a branch of a tree that stretched out over my sloop's stern. It 
was a noted horsethief that had been caught, tried, convicted, 
sentenced and hung by an outraged community during my ab- 



FEMALE FRAILTY 121 

sence of a few hours. Here the Irishman left me and trudged 
off on foot to visit her "better half," who, he said, was living 
about three miles above Marysville. My two boys were worn 
out, and averse to going any farther, but as they had four 
months' pay due them, and knew they could not demand it here, 
they concluded to go on. 

I discharged all the cargo. At last the rains set in, and a 
breeze came along with the wet, which enabled me to complete 
my irksome task. I gave the sloop up to the sheriff and she was 
sold at auction for $400 to the same party of whom I had bought 
her eight months before for upwards of $4,000. 

The day after I arrived my Irish passenger came to me in 
great tribulation, his eyes were full of tears, and it was some 
time before he could compose himself to tell me his troubles. 
At last he blubbered out : "My wife what I left in me cabin just 
out yonder, with me leetle cheel, oh! me eyes and me soul and 
me body, buh-p-p-p." "What's the matter, Pat?" said I. "Is 
she dead?" At this he woke. "Dead is it," said he, "and sure, 
by the soul of Saint Patrick, it's dead I wish she was. No, she 
has sold the cabin and taken me cheel and the illigant farniter 
and has rinned away with that spalpeen of a Mike Sullivan to 
the diggins, and may the divil git her, oh, buh-p-p-p." 

One more instance of female frailty which must close the 
chapter. Paddy with his wife and child had been landed at 
Monterey some seven or eight months previously, from thence 
they found their way to Marysville and squatted on a vacant lot 
a short distance above the city, where he built a small cabin. 
Leaving her there, he returned to Monterey for the residue of 
his household goods, he was taken sick at that place, and was 
kept there two months, had recovered and reached San Fran- 
cisco with his bags and bundles, just in time to take passage 
with me. During his absence an old acquaintance and former 
suitor found her out, renewed his suit, and this time conquered. 

California plays the devil with the women. But lest it should 
be said that I am too severe on the weaker sex, I add that where 
California has made one woman what she ought not to be, it has 
made twenty knaves of men that were considered at home mer- 
chants of respectability and honour. Could the burnt ledgers be 



122 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

restored, and true accounts of sales, devoid of fictitious charges, 
be compared with the remittances, it would make many a man 
who now moves in a high sphere, hide his head in ignominy and 
shame. No, my excellent countrywomen, the world acknowl- 
edges you as its brightest patterns of virtue and morality. 

But to all general rules there are exceptions. The instances 
of frailty I have recorded are but the exceptions, and do but add 
the greater lustre to the uncorrupted, and these unfortunate ex- 
ceptions have been made such by the boasted lords of creation. 
Had Mr. and Mrs. Bogert remained at home that villainous 
cockney doctor would not have had the opportunity to mar their 
happiness, and had not Doctor Pierson in an evil hour come 
across the path of Mrs. Haight, the soothing influence of time 
might have smoothed the asperity of her own and her legitimate 
husband's feelings and she might have been spared to be a happy 
wife and mother. 

The harassing trials I had undergone made me sick again, 
first, with fever, and afterwards with weakening diarrhea. I 
remained at Marysville a month to dispose of my lumber. The 
result was that owing to my long passage and its injured state 
from being wet, warped and split, together with the expense of 
cartage, I was left in debt to Capt. Le Craw, and I had better be 
the devil's debtor. 

Having wound up my affairs, I bid adieu to Marysville. Capt. 
Haight offered me a passage down in his steamer, and I landed 
on Long Wharf in San Francisco sick and without a dollar and 
with no place to lay my head. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Here now was I, the veriest wretch, as I thought, in all Cali- 
fornia. But in this day of gloom I was not wholly forsaken. Capt. 
Stephen Haskel, who had formerly been my mate in the ship 
Arragon, was here in command of the ship Talma of Boston. He 
kindly invited and urged me to take up my abode with him on 
board, and I gladly accepted his kind invitation. 

I had no means, no employment, no energy. No man had 
worked harder than I had. I had at first been prospered, and I 
began to think that the bright star of my destiny had at last 
arisen to shed its cheering influence on my downward path in 
life, but it had set again in gloom, ere it had risen above the 
"mirage" of malignant refraction. A constitutional melancholy, 
which has afflicted me through life at intervals, now seized upon 
me with tenfold force, and for four weary months I wandered 
about this busy town without an object, and completely pros- 
trated. 

In this dilemma a gentleman on whom I had no claim, but, on 
the contrary, he who had lost more by me than any other man, 
stood forth my disinterested friend. This gentleman was Bard 
Plummer, Esq., and while I live I shall never cease to be grate- 
ful to that man. It will probably never be in my power to recip- 
rocate his kindness, and I here charge you, my boys, should you 
be prospered in life, and occasion call for it, never forget Mr. 
Plummer's kindness to your father. 

He voluntarily offered to buy a vessel for me whenever I 
could find one to suit me, and let me take her and find my way 
home in her the best way I could. 

The "Vigilance Committee" had now begun their work in 
earnest. Some of the members in their patrol arrested a Sydney 
covey by the name of Jenkins, who had been concerned in a num- 
ber of villainous transactions, but nothing legally calling for 
capital punishment. Capt. Haskel and myself were awakened 
by the clang of the well known signal bell, which had a sound 

123 



i2 4 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

different from all the other bells in the city. I rushed on deck, 
expecting to see the devoted town once more in flames, but all 
was dark. It was the deathknell of the wretched culprit Jen- 
kins. 

He had been arrested in the evening and received a hurried, 
though doubtless a fair trial. The proof of his villainies was 
strong as Holy Writ. He was sentenced to be hung imme- 
diately. A rope was fixed around his neck; he was dragged to 
Portsmouth Square and hung at midnight to a beam that pro- 
jected out over the door of the Custom House. 

A few days afterwards a man was caught in the act of steal- 
ing a trunk from a room on Long Wharf and the room was 
found to be on fire. He was handed over to the Vigilance Com- 
mittee and was hung to a derrick on California Street Wharf. 

But the most awful deed remains to be told, and I forereach a 
few weeks in order to make a connected story. During my ab- 
sence up the river on my last trip, two ruffians from the Port 
Philip House went into a store that stood next to that den of 
infamy, assaulted and left for dead the owner (Mr. Jansen) and 
robbed him of his treasure. The police had at last begun to 
show some energy, and they soon arrested these two rascals, and 
confined them to await trial. But think of confining a Sydneyite 
in a common jail! You might as well bind a lion with a 
yarn rope. As a matter of course they escaped, and a short time 
afterwards they were heard of as committing a highway rob- 
bery and murder in the County of Yuba. They were again ar- 
rested, examined and sent off to Sacramento to be confined in the 
"Prison Brig," but they "vamoosed" on the road. 

Well, about the 20th of August some of the vigilant mem- 
bers of the Vigilance Committee ferreted them out in the neigh- 
borhood of Sacramento, bound them, and brought them down 
to San Francisco and confined them with chains in the 
Committee room. The legal authorities demanded them, but the 
Committee refused to give them up, and kept them with the view 
of extorting some clew to their associates, in which they par- 
tially succeeded. One of them (Stuart) made a full confession 
of all his nefarious transactions, including the murderous assault 
upon Capt. Jones in the cabin of the James Caskie. 



VIGILANCE COMMITTEE 125 

Now the Governor had issued a proclamation calling on all 
good citizens to assist the civil authorities in preserving law and 
order, and particularly warning all to have nothing to do with 
the Committee of Vigilance, but his proclamation was treated 
with contempt. The public, or what I must call the mobbish 
sentiment, was with the Committee, and a fearful contest was 
apprehended. The Committee room was guarded at night by 
portions of the members armed to the teeth. One night the Gov- 
ernor, the Mayor, sheriff, judges, a large police force, and a 
number of law-abiding citizens proceeded to the room, overpow- 
ered the guard, and took away the culprits to the city prison. 
The next day when these proceedings became known publicly, 
the excitement was terrible. Thousands of the most violent 
assembled around the quarters of the Committee with two field 
pieces, only awaiting the signal to commence the outbreak and 
batter down the walls of the prison. But fortunately the Com- 
mittee adopted the better part of valour, and in a few days the 
excitement died away, but it was only the calm that precedes 
the hurricane. 

A clergyman was in the practice of visiting the prison on 
Sunday, during the interval of his church services, to exhort and 
pray with the prisoners. On Sunday, August 29, while he was 
engaged in this, the most appropriate of all the duties of a Chris- 
tian minister, a closed carriage was driven to the door of the 
prison, where some fifteen or twenty of the most energetic mem- 
bers of the Committee had previously assembled, the door was 
burst open, and the two horrified culprits were seized, hurried into 
the coach, and driven rapidly down to the dreadful judgment 
hall. 

At this moment the dreadful alarm bell sounded its tocsin of 
alarm. In an instant, as if an earthquake had shaken the city, 
the streets were full of people, everybody anticipating another 
conflagration, which my readers will not wonder at when they 
have finished this narrative. But the truth became known at 
once, and thousands upon thousands came rushing from all quar- 
ters towards the committee room, which stood in Sansom street, 
near the corner of California street, the widest street in the city. 
Their room was a large hall extending over two stores. There 



I2 6 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

Were two doors in the front, and over each door was a project- 
ing beam, for the purpose of hoisting up merchandise. At the 
end of each beam had been previously fixed a pulley, and the 
ends of the line were taken within the building, and the doors 
closed. In ten minutes from the time the coach reached the hall, 
the doors were suddenly thrown open and headlong came a miser- 
able wretch from each doorway, and they were hoisted to the beam 
ends, amid the gibes, the shouts, the screeches, and the horrid 
blasphemy of ten thousand of their fellow creatures, who filled 
the streets, the wharves, the lumber yards and crowded the roofs 
of the stores and the spars of the shipping. 

Now, whatever cause there might have been for the organiza- 
tion of the Committee of Vigilance, and certainly some action on 
the part of the community was necessary, still I think they have 
gone too far. Had they devoted themselves to the object of as- 
sisting and watching the constituted authorities and providing 
suitable prison houses, their name would then have been appro- 
priate. But like all excited multitudes, when once under head- 
way, they knew not when to stop. Besides, some of the most 
prominent members of that association are men as worthy of pun- 
ishment of some kind as the wretched victims whom they have 
lawlessly sent, without a moment's preparation, to meet their 
God. 

The man who was the most active at the execution of the 
first culprit Jenkins, he who fixed the rope about the victim's 
neck, and who acted the part of boatswain, and cried "Yo heave, 
ho," "and up he rises," was himself a runaway from justice in 
another state, a man whose object it is to court the applause of 
the vulgar populace, whether fair or foul, a rowdy, who is at any 
moment liable to a requisition from the Governor of New York 
for a state prison offense. I mean Capt. Wakeman, he who ran 
away from New York with the steamer New World, while she 
was in custody of the sheriff, forcibly putting him on shore at 
Sandy Hook. 

And the man who figures more largely than any other, he who 
has made all the speeches, and who is, in fact, the "primum mo- 
bile" of the whole concern, is Sam Brannan, a Mormon priest, 
an unprincipled rascal who has cheated Capt. Sutter out of a 



VIGILANCE COMMITTEE 127 

great portion of his estate, and swindled a former partner in 
business out of his share in the concern, and who afterwards 
raised a gang of a hundred desperadoes and went to the Sand- 
wich Islands with the view of subverting the government and 
making himself a nabob on its ruins ! He to direct the movement 
of two or three hundred merchants, mechanics and others ! 

I am very glad I have had no concern with that Committee. 
In connection with this subject there is a thrilling incident which 
might serve an author as the basis of an interesting romance. 
There was an unfortunate individual about who so closely resem- 
bled the culprit Stuart that after he had broken out of gaol and 
was still at large this individual was arrested and underwent 
a trial at the Supreme Court. Mr. Jansen identified him as one 
of the men who attacked him in his store, and the police officers 
swore positively that he was the real Stuart whom they had 
previously had in custody. It was in vain that the man declared 
that his name was not Stuart, but Burdue. He was convicted 
and sentenced to fourteen years' imprisonment in the state prison 
(when they get one). He was then sent to Marysville to be 
tried for the murder in that county. There, also, he was iden- 
tified as Stuart, and it was with much difficulty the police could 
save him from the fury of the populace. He was again con- 
victed, and sentenced to be hung on a day to be appointed by 
the Governor. It was while he was awaiting the Governor's 
order that the Vigilance Committee succeeded in arresting the 
real Stuart, who in his confession exculpated Burdue from any 
share in his villainies. 

Previous to this another man ran a narrow escape from an 
excited multitude from his resemblance to Stuart. This was the 
captain of a British ship. He was passing quietly along Mont- 
gomery street when some one cried out, "There goes Stuart!" 
He was immediately seized by an infuriated mob, and only 
escaped being torn to pieces when recognized and rescued by the 
consignee of his ship, who fortunately happened to get sight of 
him. The community was in such a state of excitement that no 
one was safe. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

On the night of the 3rd of May, 1851, just one year from a 
destructive fire, I had retired early to bed, but not to sleep. At 
about eleven o'clock I heard the first twang of that infernal bell. 
In a moment I was on deck and found the devoted city once 
more doomed to destruction. The whole northeast side of Ports- 
mouth Square was in flames ; the furious nor' wester, which had 
lulled away at sunset, reawakened by the heat of the conflagra- 
tion, was rushing down the gully between Signal Hill and the 
heights that form the background, driving the flaming mass 
directly over that portion of the city that had been burnt up in 
June last, and also over a fleet of two hundred ships that lay 
together in the flats in such manner as to be utterly inextricable. 

Those man toys they call fire engines were rattling away to 
the scene, with the shouts of the companies and the tinkling of 
their polished bells, but they are of no more use than an old 
maid's teapot or a syringe from the medicine chest. A company 
get their machine placed in the right position to attack a building 
on fire, the hose is nicely placed in its serpentine track, the pipe- 
holder grasps his squirting tube and aims it at the roof, expecting 
to see the shingles fly like feathers in a hurricane. The fireman 
puts his silver trumpet to his mouth and bawls out, "Play away 
No. 4 !" But No. 4 has "absquatulated." A large wooden build- 
ing directly in their rear had burst into flames as suddenly as 
a haystack, and they have much to do to save their water cart 
and trundle it to another position. All the fire engines in Amer- 
ica cannot stop a San Francisco conflagration. 

Washington and Clay streets run from the northwest and 
southeast sides of Portsmouth Square; up these two streets the 
fire urged its way, against the wind, to Stockton Street, and from 
that to Powell Street, and along Powell it ran in a southeasterly 
direction, crossing Sacramento and California to Market Street, 
and in the northwest it leaped Jackson and Pacific streets to 
Broadway. From Broadway to Market Street is half a mile, and 

128 



ANOTHER FIRE 129 

from Powell Street to the bay is from one-fourth to one-third 
of a mile. These boundaries include a space of a hundred acres 
which at sunset stood thickly studded with buildings. By 4 a. m. 
the whole was cleared away, with the exception of three build- 
ings in Montgomery Street, burning five large store-ships full 
of merchandise, one of them the Niantic, so miraculously saved 
in June last, which had been enclosed in a wall of sheet iron. 
She might as well have been wrapped in brown paper. Fortu- 
nately the city authorities had procured a depot for the gun- 
powder in the outskirts. 

All the rest of those brick buildings in Montgomery Street, 
which had been thought to be fire-proof, were but tinder boxes, 
and had shared the general fate. In one of them the proprietors 
(Messrs. Tahill & Co.) had, with some half a dozen of their 
friends, shut themselves up with a supply of water, feeling confi- 
dent of their security. In the morning their burnt and mangled 
bodies were found among the ruins near the door. It is sup- 
posed that, finding the building no longer tenable, they had en- 
deavored to escape, but the intense heat had so warped the iron 
doors and windows that they could not be opened. Mr. Wells, 
too, the Boston banker, and three or four of his friends, remained 
in his fire-proof building too long, and did but just escape. Mr. 
W. got dreadfully burned and will carry the marks to his grave. 

In Jackson Street stood the store of Messrs. Stuart & Raines, 
and in the chamber of their store were deposited all my books, 
charts and nautical instruments, and all my clothing except a 
change of linen that I had with me in the Talma. I could not 
leave the ship, for it required our constant attention to extin- 
guish the burning matter that was continually falling on board. 

When daylight appeared, from Clark's Point to Happy Val- 
ley there was nothing to be seen except the three brick buildings 
before mentioned and the foundations of that portion of the city 
which had stood over the water. Here ten thousand piles were 
standing up in the mud, with their tops burnt to the water's 
edge, resembling (to use a low comparison) so many blackheads 
and yellownecks of monster clams standing up in Joppa flats. 
The Custom House was destroyed; with the books and ships' 



i3° 



A PIONEER VOYAGE 



papers in the vault of that building were three millions of treas- 
ure. 

Minutely to describe this dreadful conflagration is beyond 
my power. The awful demon of Nature's most destructive ele- 
ment had been let loose at a moment when another demon had 
arisen to fan its fury, and had wiped out, in a twinkling, the 
grandest result of human enterprise the world has ever seen, or 
ever can see. 

In the morning, when I landed, I went over to Messrs. Stuart 
& Raines' lot. It was entirely clear; there was not a piece of 
timber left large enough to make a clothespin. I found Mr. 
Stuart engaged in contracting with a builder for a new store to 
be ready for occupancy in one week. All over the ruins men 
were at work clearing away the rubbish preparatory to rebuild- 
ing their city and getting it ready for another conflagration, 
which took place six weeks afterwards. 

It was on the fatal thirteenth day of June; it was Sunday, 
and Capt. Haskel and I had left the Talma, intending to go to 
church. We called on board the James Caskie for Capt. Jones 
and his wife to accompany us. While sitting in his cabin the 
bells began to ring, as we supposed, for the morning service ; but 
the accompaniment of ships' bells of all tones from double bass 
to contralto, with tin pans and cow-horns, soon called me upon 
deck. Thick smoke and flames were rising from a spot far up 
the hill in the western section of the city. 

We hurried on shore, and I made my way through the 
crowded streets to the spot. The fire had commenced in a car- 
penter's shop in the rear of Powell Street, and might easily have 
been extinguished if a supply of water had been at hand ; but 
there was none nearer than the bay, and before that could be 
made available the fire had again got the mastery. When I 
reached the scene the western side of Powell Street was all in 
flames. Three engines were in this street, vainly squirting on 
the burning mass. I stood looking on a few moments, and per- 
ceived the opposite side of the street began to change colour. 
First it turned yellow, then brown, then the colour of burnt cof- 
fee, and began to smoke; the glazing snapped and flew, thus let- 
ting the heat into the interior; the cotton linings caught at once, 



AN EXPLOSION 131 

and at the same instant the whole broadside of the street, which 
was a continuous range of wooden buildings, burst into flames. 
The firemen were obliged to flee, abandoning two of their ma- 
chines and saving the other at much risk ; several of them got 
badly and some fatally burned. 

The flames were now raging furiously down Jackson Street, 
and I ran down to the store of Messrs. Stuart & Raines, where I 
found the Newburyport delegation busy in removing their stock 
of goods. Capt. Raines put into my charge a trunk containing 
their treasure, and I took it on a wheelbarrow and trundled it 
away down Front Street. I had not been there long before 
the fire came careering down Broadway and Pacific Streets, and 
I was in danger of being enclosed between two fires, and I 
wheeled my barrow down to the lower end of Pacific Wharf, 
where for three hours I remained guarding the treasure of a firm 
in whose store all I had on earth to lose was burnt up six weeks 
previously, — and I wondered what was to happen to me next. 

As I stood there watching the progress of the devastation a 
terrific explosion in Pacific Street arrested my attention. It was 
a large warehouse built with corrugated iron sheets nailed to a 
wooden frame ; in this building was stored a considerable quan- 
tity of gunpowder, which had been allowed to remain, either 
unknown to the fire department or else under the impression 
that there was no danger. This leveled to the ground a large 
space, and, the fire department taking the hint, blew up other 
buildings and abandoned their engines, by which means and the 
fortunate suspension of the usual gale, the valuable portion of 
the city was this time saved. 

The space cleared off by this conflagration was about twenty 
acres, but the buildings were mostly of an inferior description 
and were occupied as second class boarding houses and retail 
shops. Three churches were burnt, one of them a large, new 
edifice nearly ready for dedication belonging to the First Pres- 
byterian Society. It is supposed that this fire was the work of 
incendiaries. Many kindling fires have been discovered lately 
by the patrol of the Vigilance Committee, and my readers will 
bear in mind that the Port Philip miscreants had not yet been 
arrested and executed. 



CHAPTERJXXV. 

July 4, 185 1. — The city is alive with the fun and frolic, the 
drunkenness and rowdyism, of the celebration. I could take no 
part in it, and alone I wandered away to the top of Signal Hill, 
a lofty promontory that forms the northwest boundary of the 
city. The view from this spot was magnificently grand. To the 
west was the Golden Gate; and beyond, the vast expanse of the 
Pacific. In every other direction the panorama was bounded by 
distant mountains, the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada rising 
in awful sublimity above the coast range, and in the clear and 
pure atmosphere, although at a distance of two hundred miles, 
yet looking as though they could be reached in an hour's travel. 
At my feet lay the city of wonders, every street and every build- 
ing distinctly traceable in this birds-eye view, while in front ex- 
pands the noble bay, capable of containing all the navies of the 
world; and beyond, another and still another beautiful inland bay. 

As I was sitting there enjoying this glorious panorama, the 
booming of cannon from ships and shore recalled to my mind the 
day, and I reflected upon the glorious career of my country, and 
the great and good men who achieved her independence, prom- 
inent among whom stands ONE so deservedly denominated "the 
'Father' of his country." From my boyhood I have never been 
able to think of George Washington without finding my eyes 
moistening with a tribute of veneration such as no other mortal 
of ancient or modern times has ever been able to call forth. 

On this occasion I took my memorandum book and wrote the 
following impromptu, which flowed from my overcharged brain 
as fast as I could write it down: 

Immortal Fame once held a court, 

To crown the greatest, best of mortals, 
And summoned nations to report, 

And send their heroes to her portals. 

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AN IMPROMPTU POEM 133 

First Alexander, surnamed Great, 

Appeared, the King of conquered nations, 

On proud Darius' throne he sate 
Engrossed with servile adulations. 

Then Caesar, on his golden throne, - 

A proffered diadem refusing; 
Rome boasts this hero for her own, 

And thinks that Fame can't err in choosing. 

Spain sends her Philip, far renowned, 

And Sweden, Charles, so great in story; 
And each expects her hero, crowned, 

Will soon return, enshrined in glory. 

Old England now stands proudly forth 

And spreads her long heroic list; 
She cannot tell, — for moral worth, — 

Which of her great men is the best. 

Then fickle, gay, immoral France 

Puts in her claim for Fame's "e carte" ; 
She fancies that, without a chance, 

'Twill settle on her Bonaparte. 

Besides the German Fredericks all, 

And low-born, great Muscovite Peter, 
From ev'ry clime within Fame's hall 

Were gods of every hue and feature. 

In silence now the nations wait 

For just, impartial Fame's decision. 
Why wait? Because another great, 

Heroic, good man comes in vision. 

Greece, Rome, Spain, Sweden, England, Gaul, 

And all their Heroes bow before him ; 
A great — the greatest son of all ; 

The nations for his worth adore him. 

Among them all, there is but one 
Fame crowns a Hero — Washington. 



i 34 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

Just as I had finished this episode, I heard my name called, 
and, looking up, I was accosted by Major Braman, a gentle- 
man whose acquaintance I had formed in Marysville. He 
proposed to me to buy a ship, and lay her on for 
Panama for passengers. I told him that I had no means. 
He said if I would look round and find a suitable ship and would 
take charge of her he would find the means, and I might take 
what interest I chose. I did not think very favourably of the 
operation, but it would at least afford me employment, and that 
was what I needed to drive away my melancholy. He appointed 
to meet me at 10 a. m. the next day at the store of a mutual 
friend. 

I knew of a suitable ship that could be had cheap, and I 
called at the appointed rendezvous, but instead of meeting the 
Major I was handed the following note: 

"Dear Sir: — By the advice of friends I have concluded 
not to engage in the enterprise we talked of yesterday, and I 
leave in the steamer at noon. Hoping that you will, etc., I am, 
dear sir, Yours truly, 

Chas. Braman." 

I have been trained in the school of disappointment, but, 
coming upon this as I did, at a time of unusual depression, I 
was but poorly able to bear it. But I soon began to think that 
it was all for the best, that my hope newly awakened had been 
crushed before I had become engaged in that unpleasant busi- 
ness. 

About the middle of August I fell in with a fine barque of 
three hundred tons, three years old. I found the captain was 
desirous of selling her, and, after bantering with him for about 
a week, I got him to name a price in which I thought I could 
conscientiously propose to my friend to invest his money. On 
mentioning the subject to him, he at once acceded to the pur- 
chase, and I was placed in command of the "Arco Iris." She 
was not quite as large a vessel as I could have preferred, but 
suited me better than any other I could find. I found consider- 
able to do to her to put her in a condition to please my taste, for 
I am somewhat fastidious in regard to such matters. I was 
surprised to find what an effect occupation with an object in 



LEAVING CALIFORNIA 135 

view had in dispelling the gloomy despondency that had so long 
oppressed me. I laid her on the berth for freight and passengers 
for Honolulu. 

The last Sabbath I spent in California I attended the morning 
service at the chapel of the Rev. Mr. Williams, Presbyterian, a 
gentleman with whom I had become acquainted soon after my 
arrival, at the funeral of young Thurlo. After service I went 
home with him by invitation. The new church that was burnt 
in the last great fire was intended for him. 

Mr. Williams is the worthy man who had so kindly volun- 
teered to visit the prison to exhort and pray with the criminals. 
He said that he was in the act of prayer, and was just interced- 
ing for mercy on the guilty creatures, with particular reference 
to the culprits Stuart and his associates, when his devotions were 
so outrageously interrupted by the delegation from the Vigilance 
Committee. He says no language can describe the horrified 
aspect of the wretches when they were so ruthlessly seized and 
dragged away to be executed, and one of the committee told me 
they were more than half dead before they were strung up. Mrs. 
Williams said that her husband was brought home in a frightful 
state of nervous excitement, from which he had not wholly re- 
covered, and she was obliged to do the honours of the table. 

I have said that Mr. Williams was a worthy man; his views 
in certain doctrinal points in religious matters and my own are 
at variance, but we can eat at the same table, and, if need be, 
could sleep in the same bed. He is very unassuming in conver- 
sation, stating his own opinions with calmness and as calmly 
listening to the arguments of his opponents. His sermons are 
devoid of dogmatical assertion on disputed points, and are based 
upon the inculcation of the principles of pure morality. In 
short, he is no bigot. He came here from Mobile. 

I obtained freight to the amount of $700, and three passen- 
gers, and got ready for sea on the 10th of September. I shipped 
one mate, four seamen and one negro to act as cook and steward. 
I was obliged to pay the mate $50 a month for the voyage round, 
the cook $50 and the seamen $40 for the run to Honolulu. 

Got under way at noon, and beat out of the harbour under 
double reefs, against the usual fiery nor'wester. At sunset it 



136 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

fell calm, and a strong flood tide set me back into the bay, and I 
anchored in Saucelite Cove. At midnight started again with a 
light breeze from northeast, and proceeded to sea, and as I passed 
the Golden Gate I thought of the strange career that had attended 
me since I passed in here in the Alhambra, two years ago. 
But adieu, 

Thou wondrous city, offspring of a day; 

The "ne plus ultra" of the works of man, 
Young giant Empress of this noble bay; 

Thy future greatness let him tell who can. 

The wide Pacific waits at thy command 

Her varied vast resources to unfold, 
And pour them all upon thy busy strand, 

Thou great exporter of unmeasured gold. 

Columbia boasts of thy majestic birth, 

Columbia's sons have made thee what thou art; 

No other race of men in all the earth 

Could e'er have given thee such a glorious start. 

That start is but the herald of thy youth, 

The initiating step in thy career. 
Revolving suns shall witness still thy growth, 

And earth's metropolis be found in future here. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

The winds prevailed from the northeast, but very light, and 
I was twenty days running over to the islands. My little barque 
did not sail so well as I expected from her reputed character and 
her model. This I attribute to her having lain so long in the 
mud in San Francisco. Her bottom is probably coated with 
barnacles and oysters, for I have seen attached to the copper on 
ships' bottoms lying there clusters of oysters that would fill a 
peck measure. 

Made the island of Wahoa at midnight on the second of Octo- 
ber, doubled the southeast point at 4 a. m., and at daylight 
received a pilot, Capt. Knox, of Boston, and entered the harbour, 
which is in the lee or southwest side of the island. It is formed 
by the continuation of a large ravine that comes down from the 
mountains, and extends a mile into the sea, bounded by a coral 
reef on each side, rising to from two to four feet of the surface. 

The entrance is narrow and, with the usual trade wind blow- 
ing out, ships cannot work in. As a ship comes off the harbour, 
intending to go in, the pilot makes a signal and one or two hun- 
dred of the natives wade out on the south reef with a long tow- 
line, one end of which is placed in a boat stationed at the end 
of the reef. The ship stands in under a press of sail, hauls short 
round the end of the reef, every halyard is let go at once and 
sail taken in as quickly as possible. The men in the boat pass 
their end of the line on board and it is made fast to the bits. The 
pilot waves his hand, the Kanakas strike up a diatessaron and 
start off with the towline, tugging the ship up to the anchorage 
like a regiment of black ants dragging along an elephant. 

The town of Honolulu is situated on the south side on a level 
space of two or three miles extent, backed up by abrupt hills. In 
front are the stores and places of business of the foreign popula- 
tion, chiefly American, numbering from three thousand to four 
thousand. Their residences are delightfully situated in the back- 
ground, streets well laid out and buildings substantial and com- 

137 



i 3 8 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

modious. There is a very good market house, and it is well 
supplied with meats, fish and fruit and vegetables. Green turtle 
are here no rarity. There are several short but convenient 
wharves, and it is a good place to heave out and repair a ship. 
Lumber and spars are brought from Oregon; mechanics abun- 
dant. 

The natives live in huts made of poles and interwoven with 
cane and reed and covered with coarse grass ; they occupy a space 
back of the foreigners. They are of an olive complexion, hair 
and eyes universally black, well-formed and regular features. 
Some of the women would be considered handsome were it not 
for their abominable, dirty untidiness. 

They live principally upon "paui" and fish. Paui is the tara 
root, a bulbous vegetable which grows in pools of water and is 
something like a turnip in appearance. It is mashed up and kept 
till it becomes acid before it is eaten. They do not use knives 
and forks or spoons ; with them fingers were made first, and they 
stick to nature's implements. A party squat upon their haunches 
like frogs around a tub of paui, with small fishes; daub goes a 
fellow's fist into the paui paste, and, whirling it round till he 
gets it into the right shape, he opens his capacious maw, thrusts 
in his whole hand, licks off the foetid mass and is ready for an- 
other daub. The ladies, more delicate, dip in only the fingers. 

Occasionally they seize a fish in both hands, and, holding it 
by the head and tail, they eat it raw, making the first grab at the 
entrails as the choicest morsel. On Sundays, which the strangers 
have taught them is a holiday, they indulge in the luxury of roast 
pork, which, cooked in their fashion, is indeed a luxury. They 
scoop out a hollow in the ground and pave it with stones, make 
a fire in it, and, when the stones are sufficiently heated, they clear 
away the embers and lay in a pig weighing from fifty to one 
hundred pounds ; then they cover it with other stones previously 
heated, and on the heap lay a mound of heated earth. In this 
way the juices are prevented from escaping, the meat cooks grad- 
ually and thoroughly, and when taken out is of a fine brown 
colour and is tender and delicious. 

These people are addicted to intemperance, and when drunk 
they are mad. The Government has prohibited any white man 



DIVINE SERVICES 139 

from furnishing them liquors under any pretense whatever, un- 
der a penalty of five hundred dollars. But the King himself is 
above the law and is a beastly drunkard. He is a good-looking 
young man. 

They are passionately fond of riding on horseback, and the 
women ride astraddle, bundled up in about twenty yards of yel- 
low cotton cloth, each one looking like a great pumpkin with 
a section sliced out and the cavity fitted to the saddle. The native 
canoes are dugouts, so narrow that they can only get their legs 
and feet in; they are prevented from turning over by outriggers 
from each end, extending out eight or ten feet, with a piece of 
timber shaped like the canoe secured to the outer ends. 

Sunday, October 28. — I attended divine service at the Bethel. 
The congregation was composed of the elite or aristocratic por- 
tion of the residents, seated in their own pews ; very few seamen 
were there. The stated preacher in the forenoon gave us a very 
sensible and well-written discourse, and there was nothing very 
objectionable in his prayer. In the afternoon he introduced to 
his audience a newly fledged bird just let loose from his nest at 
Princeton or Andover. He went on in a ranting, canting style 
of dogmatical assertions, as though he thought he was talking 
to those who had no more sense than himself. 

His prayer was a lengthened tissue of commonplace, unmean- 
ing expressions and impious wishes. At one time he hesitated 
as if at a loss for a sentence, and then he uttered with a long- 
drawn-out "o — h !" this impious imprecation : "O — h, Lord ! 
that we might understand the length and the breadth and the 
height and the depth of Thine inscrutable decrees !" There is a 
fault in our form of worship; we are supposed to join in prayer, 
and our mouthpiece utters, too often, wishes repugnant to our 
feelings. For this reason set forms of prayer are more appro- 
priate ; we then know what we are going to ask for. Our 
Saviour Himself condemned long prayers and gave us a form 
the most appropriate that a mortal can offer to his Maker, except 
in seasons of great distress, when we may be excused for being 
more particular. 

There is a large building in an open field in the outskirts 
built by missionary funds for the use of the natives as a church. 



i 4 o A PIONEER VOYAGE 

I took a stroll out there on Sunday, November 4th. There was 
no service and the house was closed. One-half of the glazing 
was broken and some of the window blinds were lying about on 
the ground and others hanging by one hinge. The basement 
was fitted up with benches and a desk for a vestry or lecture 
room, but the doors were missing, and cows, sheep and swine 
seemed to have it all to themselves. The whole appearance of 
the building indicated that the missionaries were getting tired of 
their calling, or else that the Kanakas were getting tired of them. 

I found lying here the ship Adirondack, Capt. Gillespie. 
This is the same ship and the same captain that the Ocean Queen 
made love to so warmly at the mouth of the Mississippi. Capt. 
G. says that when he saw the collision must take place he ran 
into his cabin to place his wife in safety. He expected we should 
cut his stern off. He said that it cost $10,000 to repair his dam- 
age. He is after a freight of oil, very much to my disadvantage. 

At Honolulu I became acquainted with Mr. Anthon, the 
Danish Consul. Dining with him one day, the conversation 
turned upon California and its wonders. I have already told so 
many extravagant stories that I fear I shall be thought a second 
Munchausen, but I must relate Mr. Anthon's story to cap the 
climax. He says that, early in 1849, ne bought an old schooner 
and loaded her with potatoes and cleared $25,000 ; but the climax 
is this: he bought at auction a cask of saleratus weighing 250 
pounds for $25 and sent it over to San Francisco in the schooner. 
It came to market at a time when all the flour on hand was 
sour, and the bakers must have a correction, and this barrel of 
saleratus sold for $8 a pound, so that the cask that cost in Hono- 
lulu $25 brought in San Francisco, one month afterwards, the 
snug little sum of $2,000 ! 

The Sandwich Islands are nine in number, forming a group 
ranging northwest and southeast from Lat. 22 ° 30' N., Long. 
160 15' W., to Lat. 18 45' N., Long. 154 5& W. They lie 
about one-third the distance from the coast of Mexico to China. 
Most of the islands are volcanic, and some of the peaks rise to 
the altitude of fifteen thousand feet. Woakoo is one of the 
smallest, but selected as the seat of government from possessing 
the best harbour of any. The climate is temperate, the thermom- 



SANDWICH ISLANDS 141 

eter ranging from 6o° to 85 ° Fahrenheit. When first discov- 
ered by Capt. Cook in 1778, he estimated the whole population 
at four hundred thousand. But, like all other countries newly 
settled by the Anglo-Saxon race, they are fast dwindling away 
and do not number now one-third of that number. Sugar cane, 
coffee and tropical fruits and vegetables flourish, and these 
islands are to become to the future Pacific States what the An- 
tilles are to the Atlantic. 

Honolulu is the great resort of the Arctic whale ships, to 
spend the winter and refit. I waited here six weeks in hopes 
of getting a freight of oil out of some of them for home, and in 
two instances thought I had succeeded, but I found the New 
Bedford interest too strong for me, the captains of the oil and 
whalebone ships giving the preference to a vessel belonging to 
that place or else to one commanded by a man accustomed to the 
business. So I was obliged to give it up and push on across the 
Pacific. 

In contrasting the pure Kanaka blood with the Anglo-Saxon 
one cannot but wonder at the progress of the human race from 
barbarism to perfection, and, reasoning back from analogy, we 
wonder if our common progenitors were not baboons. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

On the 23rd of November, 1851, I left Honolulu for Singa- 
pore in search of business for my barque. For the first week 
out the trade wind was light and I made but little progress. It 
afterwards freshened up and my little craft began to show what 
she could do; she has probably shaken the shaggy coat from 
her copper. In crossing the Pacific my route lay directly across 
two positions where islands are laid down on the charts, but I 
saw no land, nor any of the usual indications of its vicinity; 
probably some ancient navigator saw at a distance a fog bank, 
such as sometimes would deceive the most experienced, and, be- 
ing ambitious of being the first discoverer, has made haste to 
report, without going near enough to be certain that he was 
right. 

On the 13th of December I passed within two miles of Vol- 
cano Island, the northernmost of the Ladrone group. This is 
an abrupt cone rising to the height of one thousand feet, with a 
crater at the summit, from which issued volumes of white smoke. 
On the 18th I passed through the passage and entered the China 
sea. The northeast monsoon was blowing fresh, and I had a 
fine run down to Singapore, where I anchored at daylight on 
Sunday, December 28th, thirty-five days from Honolulu. 

After breakfast I went on shore and first made my way to a 
large hotel that fronted the landing place. It had a spacious 
yard in front, and as I entered the gate I heard a shrill female 
voice calling up aloft, "Why, I declare! if there ain't Capt. 
George Coffin ! Who would have thought it ?" I looked up and 
beheld the well-known face of Mrs. Isaac Bray looking out of a 
chamber window. Capt. Bray, in the ship Bengal, had stopped 
here on his way from San Francisco to Calcutta, and had en- 
gaged to load here for London. I spent an hour with them very 
pleasantly. 

Having despatched a note to Mr. James Adams, he came in 
his carriage and took me over to his house, where I found my 
cousins, Mrs. Adams and her brother, Coolidge Stone. The 

142 



SINGAPORE 143 

meeting was mutually agreeable; to me it was peculiarly so, as 
Mrs. Adams was so lately from home. They kindly invited me 
to take a room in their house during my stay, and I gladly 
accepted their polite invitation to escape from my prison (for I 
am alone on board, my mate being a rowdy with whom I cannot 
be familiar). 

But I have managed to keep off the blues thus far by busying 
myself in small jobs of carpenter's work and in writing out this 
my journal. I fear that those for whom it is written will be 
puzzled to make it out. The fact is, when I get engaged in 
writing my ideas come crowding on each other so fast that I 
am bothered to put them in black and white fast enough, and 
before I am aware of it I get running on pell mell to the bottom 
of the page, and when I come to look it over I am quite at a 
loss to make it out myself. I find many omissions, and some 
commissions, — l's made into t's, and the dots over my i's some- 
where within forty-five degrees of where they ought to be ; and 
the writing! I fancy it looks somewhat like the French soldiers 
running from the field of Waterloo! As for the stops! I fear I 
shall be obliged to adopt Lord Timothy Dexter's plan and devote 
the last page altogether to commas, semicolons, periods and notes 
of queries and admiration ,;:.?! 

The reports of business at Calcutta are too discouraging to 
warrant me in proceeding there, and I had nothing left but to 
look for local business, to wear away the time till I could fall 
in with a freight for home, and Mr. Adams obtained for me a 
freight of betel nut, cutch and pepper for Canton. But it is 
hard, after getting so far on my way towards home, to be 
obliged to retrace my way back again thousands of miles. But 
all for the best, perhaps. At least it is the part of true philoso- 
phy to think so. 

The betel is a climbing plant, resembling the ivy; the leaves 
are used all throughout India and China by chewing it as Euro- 
peans do tobacco ; it colours their lips a fiery red and turns the 
teeth black, which they consider an improvement upon Nature's 
handiwork. Cutch is a resin resembling black pitch, and is used 
for the same purposes. 

The town of Singapore is beautifully situated in a fine sweep- 
ing curve on the southeast side of an island of the same name 



I44 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

lying in the Straits of Malacca between the long and large 
island of Sumatra and the coast of Malay. The principal resi- 
dences of the Europeans are palace-like edifices stretching along 
the strand for about two miles, with a broad avenue lined with 
trees in fronty and a fine esplanade between that and the bay. 

Mr. Adams occupies one of the best of these residences ; his 
house is as large as an ordinary church, with half an acre of 
garden in front and twice as much in the rear; the rooms are 
large, airy and lofty. A fine circular balcony projects in front, 
looking out upon the bay and the Spice Islands beyond. Here 
we sit evenings, each in a Chinese lolling chair, with our feet 
cocked up on the balustrade Yankee fashion and with a No. i 
Manila cheroot we smoke "dull care away." 

When it was time to retire for the night, a fine young Hindu 
was summoned and appointed as my body servant. He led the 
way to a spacious and lofty apartment and began at once to act 
the part of "valet de chambre/' and while he was assisting me 
in disrobing two other Hindus brought in a large semi-spherical 
bathing tub. Then my "valet" assisted me in the difficult job of 
entering it, and, having rubbed and scrubbed my person for half 
an hour, he assisted me into a spacious couch, where I luxuriated 
in sheets of the purest linen. What a contrast ! 

The Governor's residence is situated on a hill in the back- 
grounds overlooking the whole ; the avenues leading up to it are 
lined with oranges, tamarind and nutmeg trees. Seven-eighths 
of the inhabitants are Chinese, who occupy a space in the west 
separated from the Europeans by a small bayou or creek. A 
large trade is carried on with China. The junks make but one 
voyage a year; they come down in February and lie here retail- 
ing their rich cargoes till the southwest monsoon sets in to give 
them a fair wind home; for they are like land crabs, they can 
only go on a straight line. 

This place is well situated to command an extensive trade. 
It is absolutely a free port ; no duties, no restrictions of any kind, 
no custom house; but there is one drawback to it as a desirable 
place of residence, — the jungles are infested with tigers and 
venomous serpents. 

On the 8th day of January, without any official permit, I 
started on my retrograde voyage. The northeast monsoon, blow- 




o 



u 

o •% 
< -ts 

en Is 1 



oi 



BIRTHDAY PASSAGE 145 

ing directly down the China Sea, compelled me to take the east- 
ern route, which makes the distance nearly double, but nothing 
but an opium clipper can beat up. I had a fine run through the 
Java Sea and doubled the south end of the island of Bouton on 
the evening of the 21st of January. My course then became 
northeast up through the Pitts and Gillolo passages to the Pacific 
Ocean. 

At 4 a. m. I found myself surrounded by islands and hove to 
to wait for daylight, when I found that a current or bad steerage 
had set me out of my course. The west point of the islands bore 
N. N. W., the wind W. N. W. I tacked and stood to the south- 
west about seven miles, when I fell in with an extensive reef 
nearly even with the surface, with dry rocks visible in several 
places and the remains of numerous wrecks lying about on the 
reef, which extended to the southeast beyond the horizon and 
the extremity two miles on my weather bow. This reef is not 
marked on the charts as dangerous, but must be very much so, in 
the night, and I must have passed quite near to its west end. 
Finding I could not weather it, I tacked again and, seeing a 
clear passage between the islands to leeward, and not willing to 
waste time in beating out, I bore up and, taking the lookout 
aloft myself, I passed through a strait two miles wide and came 
out into the Banda Sea. This passage had no name on the 
chart and, it being my natal day, I called it Birthday Passage. 
The winds now became light and I was a fortnight working 
my way out through the passages into the Pacific Ocean. 

On the 5th day of February we lay entirely becalmed till 
towards night in the Sea of Gillolo, and a long dark craft full of 
men was discovered about three miles distant, directly in our 
track. I looked at her with my glass and could make nothing 
more or less of it than a Malay "prahu" full of men, dark and 
naked savages. My officers and crew became very much alarmed, 
for it had been reported at Singapore that a number of vessels 
had been cut off by piratical boats in this passage, and I musr 
confess I did not feel very comfortable myself. 

I had taken the precaution to provide two small carriage guns 
at Singapore and also half a dozen muskets, but now they ap- 
peared to me to be of but little use, with such a formidable an- 
tagonist, with probably others not far off. She did not make any 



146 



A PIONEER VOYAGE 



advance, but appeared to be reconnoitering. However, the con- 
clusion of this affair was so ludicrous that I turned it into rhyme, 
and afterwards composed a jingling tune to it, for the amuse- 
ment of my children, leaving it to my daughter to arrange an 
accompaniment and premising that "prahu" is a Malay word 
signifying a long, low open boat and is pronounced as "prow." 



Moderato. 



The Pirate of Gillolo. 
J 1 V— 



:*=* 



:*=* 



ijtzd 



mf ' I 

De-scend, my muse, and fold your wing, As - sist me as 



m 



^m 



s 



-ah 



T=T 



1 f 



-<5>- 



try to sing, In mel - an - chol - y 



3t 



lo, What 



i Eji. cr i f iff^ 



once be - fell the gal - lant crew, The Ar - co I 



3t 



m 



5 



m 



& 



M 



#— #- 



±5t 



« 



g 



pass - ing thro' The pas - sage 



^ 



of 



Gil 



lo 



lo. 



I 



THE PIRATE OF GILLOLO 147 

2. 

'Twas at a time when it was said, 

To strike poor sailors' hearts with dread, 

That pirates thronged this passage 
According to the common fame, 
In prahus the rascals always came, 

Upon their deadly message. 

3- 

As nearly all one direful day, 
Without a breath of wind we lay, 

The lookout saw a prahu, sir; 
A long, low, dark and ugly sight, 
The thing to fill us with affright, 

Just off the starboard bow, sir. 

4- 
I took my glass and scanned her well ; 
Full twenty men I plain could tell, 

Besides what more were hid, sir; 
'Twas evident the time was come 
When we must fight for life and home ; 

I'll tell you what we did, sir. 

5- 
I ne'er had seen, beneath the sun, 
A hostile sword drawn, or a gun, 

Or pistol fired in anger ; 
I feared, but knew that I ought not 
To let my people see I thought 

That there was any danger. 

6. 

'Come, mount your guns, my gallant crew ; 
Those two three-pounders, bright and new ; 

Prepare for firm resistance!" 
This quick was done, the decks were swept, 
While yet the dismal pirates kept 

At a respectful distance. 



i 4 8 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

7- 
The sea, it was as smooth as glass; 
The hateful calm did still harass ; 

No cheering breeze would take us. 
The mate, he made the sad remark 
That they would wait till after dark 

And then they would attack us. 

8. 

"Then, charge your guns and let them see 
That armed and well prepared are we 

To meet them after dark, sir." 
One gun was fired ; the trusty ball 
Sped fiercely on till it did fall 

Short the intended mark, sir. 

9- 

I thought, by firing off a gun, 
The ugly prahu would up and run ; 

That we should thus confound her. 
But she moved not. "Try it again, 
My brave, heroic, valiant men." 

Bang! went the next three-pounder. 

io. 

I looked again ; not a dog sprang, 
Of all that dark and savage gang, 

Away from his fixed station. 
"They're game," quoth I, "and seem well drilled/ 
At which my mates and crew were filled 

With fearful consternation. 

ii. 

They were a mixed and motley crew — 
Dutch, Englishmen, and John Crapeau, 

With only one a Yankee, 
Who darned his eyes for being here ; 
He guessed the prahu would soon come near. 

"Pray keep off, sirs, I'll thank 'ee." 



THE PIRATE OF GILLOLO 149 

12. 

Some swore and cursed the lazy breeze, 
While two among them, Portuguese, 

Invoked the Virgin Mary. 
The cook and steward, both Chinese, 
Cried, Ching and Chang, and smote their knees ; 

Their pigtails stuck out scary. 

13- 

At length, to set my heart at ease, 
A gentle, though increasing, breeze 

Came rippling o'er the water. 
Thought I, I'll settle with you now, 
My long, low, dark and ugly prahu ; 

I'll see what you are after. 

14. 

So, straight towards her, bold I steered, 
And soon the frightful craft we neared, 

Each man armed with a musket; 
While Ching and Chang, their coppers filled 
With scalding water, stood, well drilled, 

Into the prahu to thrust it. 

15. 
A moment 'twas of deep suspense, 
For there the pirates, dark and dense, 

Looked ugly as the devil. 
It was a time to try men's souls, 
For there was nothing 'tween the poles 

So fraught with coming evil. 

16. 

"Stand firm, my men ; let's show 'em game ; 
Hold fast your firelocks ; take good aim. 

We'll teach the copper villains 
How to waylay a Yankee craft, 
And for the dollars they are aft 

We'll give them leaden shillings." 



i 5 o A PIONEER VOYAGE 

17. 

My thoughts towards home now fluttered fast. 
Oh ! wife and children, comes at last 

The end of my existence, 
When I must bid you all adieu, 
False murdered by a pirate crew, 

At such an awful distance. 

18. 

The dreaded crisis came! When, lo! 
The long, low, dark and ugly prahu 

Proved but a floating mast, sir. 
The men were *gannets, dirty things ; 
At our approach they spread their wings 

And flew away quite fast, sir. 



*A gannet is a large sea fowl, and in calm weather and a 
smooth sea there is sometimes a "mirage" or thin haze upon the 
surface that magnifies and distorts objects, making them appear 
very different from what they really are. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Tuesday, February 9. — Fell in with the little island of Maricie, 
lying in Lat. 4 N., Long. 132 E. It is about half a mile in 
extent and just elevated above the sea sufficient to support vege- 
tation, and clothed with an apparently impenetrable thicket of 
mangrove trees down to the water's edge, the branches extend- 
ing over the sea, and surrounded by reefs. 

It was not to be expected that this dot upon the ocean, two 
hundred miles from any other land, would have been inhabited, 
and I was surprised to find, on passing under its lee about two 
miles, three small log canoes waiting for me to come along. 
There were two men in each canoe, belonging to the great Malay 
race, chestnut colour, well formed and of medium height, hair 
long, black and straight, features regular and full of animation. 
They were savages, in a state of nature, entirely naked. 

Their object was trade, but they wanted not gold or silver; 
an iron hoop seemed to be the height of their ambition, and an 
old knife set them into ecstasies. All they could say in English 
was "ien 'oop and knife." All they had to give in exchange was 
a few cocoanuts and mats and scarfs of their own rude fabric, 
made from a species of grass. 

On opening the northwest side of the island I discovered 
their huts scattered about in small openings among the trees. 
How. strange! Here, now, on this little spot, where naught is to 
be seen but ocean, ever-rolling ocean, and the celestial vault, with 
its luminaries, constellations and clouds, resides a colony of 
human beings entirely cut off from any communication with the 
world, except occasionally when some straggler like myself, 
driven out of his track by adverse winds, may pass their little 
world ; and even then, most navigators would give it too wide 
a berth for them to venture off in their frail canoes, and yet 
they appeared to be happy. 

I gave them a bag of bread, and the mate threw into their 
boats a lot of porpoise blubber that had been lying in the sun 

151 



152 



A PIONEER VOYAGE 



for three days. They seized this stinking mess and devoured it 
with as much gusto as I should eat the second joint of a roast 
turkey, which, by the way, I have not tasted for three years. It 
was curious to watch their savage expression of countenance as 
they swallowed the foetid corruption; it was like that of two 
mastiffs devouring a marrow bone. I suppose when they get on 
shore this evening they will have a grand feast, and the chance 
of my visit will be an era in their chronicles long to be remem- 
bered. They hung on to the lines, towing astern, till their little 
island was sinking below the horizon, and then only left at the 
approach of night. 

I have said that they appeared to be happy. Their wants are 
few. Knowing nothing of the luxuries and refinements of civ- 
ilization, they also know nothing of its cares and wants. Banks 
may break, conflagrations may sweep away whole blocks, or 
even cities; a revolution may convulse a continent; what care 
they? They have no notes to pay and are not anxious about 
the arrival of the next steamer. And now, while they have gone 
back to their cabins, to spend a night in peace, here am great 
Mr. I toiling against a head wind that seems to be everlasting. 
Good night, simple islanders. May you never attract the notice 
of missionaries, nor be blest with the cares of civilization ! 

The winds continued unfavorable for ten days more; then, 
on the 20th, having fought my way up to Lat. 20 and Long. 
1 35 , I took the northeast trades, which soon became fresh and 
steady, and on the 25th I passed once more through the Bashee 
Passage. On the 27th fell in with "Pedra branca," a whitish 
rock, about fifty feet high, standing alone about thirty miles from 
the coast of China, an excellent landmark for vessels bound to 
Hong Kong. 

Here I was surrounded by a fleet of hundreds of fishing 
junks, an uncouth-looking craft about fifty or sixty tons. They 
have one very large sail, made of mats and shaped like a shod 
shovel, with half a dozen spreaders stretched across to make it 
set straight and strengthen it. The rudder is shaped something 
like an old-fashioned field gate, and is kept in its place by some 
"hocus pocus" contrivance without pintles. They always go in 
pairs, keeping about a cable's length apart and dragging a seine 




FISHING JUNKS. 



HONG KONG 153 

between them. The fish they catch resembles a shad in appear- 
ance and flavour more nearly than any fish we have in our waters. 

I obtained a pilot from one of them, and at midnight we 
anchored in the harbour of Hong Kong. At early daylight I 
was taken possession of by a host of Chinese expectants, prin- 
cipally women. On both sides, ahead and astern, were crowds 
of boats, all after some kind of employment. Wherever an 
American ship goes, she is a godsend to all men, women and 
children. 

Of all the places I have ever visited, Hong Kong is the most 
heterogeneous and fantastic; it beats Valparaiso out and out. 
The island rises to the height of half a mile, and is so rough 
and precipitous that a straight and level street of ten rods long 
is out of the question; in fact, a location for a house is hard to 
be found without digging down one side and levelling up the 
other. In passing along the crooked streets I found places where 
a balustrade guards one from falling down a precipice hundreds 
of feet, and on the other side of the street will be a house perched 
up fifty feet above you. Its next neighbor will be on a level 
with the street, and next door to that you will just see, peeping 
above the street wall, the roof and chimneys of a house. Go 
that side and look over and you will find that it is a large house 
down in a hollow, and the only way to get at it is by a tunnel 
under the street. Just back of the town, abrupt barren rocks 
rise to the altitude of half a mile, with cascades tumbling down 
the gullies, fed by the condensation of clouds arrested by their 
summits. 

Everybody can look down upon his neighbor except those 
living near the water, and they can look down upon hundreds of 
floating dwellings, for nearly one-half the Chinese live in boats. 
Children are born and brought up and die in a sampan, which 
is a boat eighteen or twenty feet long, with a sliding roof of 
bamboo and mats ; they are managed by the owner and his wife 
and children. The women are by far the most expert and mas- 
culine. 

The first time I got into a sampan to go on shore I thought 
the skipper was a queer-looking specimen of humanity. He was 
dressed in a blue cotton loose frock, hanging down below the 



154 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

waist ; a pair of loose trousers, cut short just below his knees, and 
legs and feet bare. He had a weatherbeaten face, resembling a 
brown pumpkin, with two narrow black streaks where his eyes 
ought to be. He had a hump on his back as big as a half bushel, 
but he flew round as nimble as a monkey, hoisted up his sail with 
the swing of a man-o'-war's man, and then he took the large 
sculling oar and sculled away like any old salt. Before we 
reached the shore a ventriloquial squeak from the hump ex- 
plained the true state of the matter. It was the woman of the 
establishment, and the hump was her babe, tightly swathed and 
securely lashed to her back underneath her loose frock. In this 
way all these boat-women carry their infants, — an excellent plan, 
for the motion of their bodies in rowing or sculling answers the 
purpose of a cradle. 

Hong Kong was ceded to the English at the close of the 
opium war. They have wisely made it a free port, and it is now 
the general resort for all ships seeking business in China. Find- 
ing that none of my cargo was to be landed here, I procured a 
river pilot and started for Canton. The harbourmaster sent me 
a Chinese pilot who was a prototype of Bonaparte. He was 
aware of this, and had studied the attitudes of the Emperor Nap- 
oleon. Standing on my quarterdeck, with his hands folded be- 
hind his back, his "chapeau de bras" in silent dignity, he looked 
the prince of pilots. 

We threaded our way out through a narrow and crooked 
channel surrounded by mountainous islands for about fifteen 
miles, when we opened out into the estuary of the "Taho" or 
Canton River, and, having advanced about thirty miles in a 
northwesterly direction, we came to the famous "Boca Tigris," 
or Tiger's Mouth. This is a strait about a mile wide. Here are 
eleven large fortifications, so situated on bluff headlands as to 
command the passage without interfering with one another, and 
were they garrisoned by European or American soldiers, they 
would make this "tiger's mouth" a most terrific opening to ven- 
ture into; but under Chinese management an American or Euro- 
pean fleet would silence them all in what Jack calls a quarter 
less no time. 

As we ran into this yawning mouth it came on dark and 



HONG KONG 155 

rainy. The river from hence up is full of mud banks, but my 
Napoleon of a pilot dashed on up the intricate channel, without 
heaving the lead till midnight, when the wind left us and we 
came to anchor. Started again at daylight, and two hours' run 
brought us to the anchorage at Whampoa, the shipping port of 
Canton. 

On our way up this morning we were accompanied by a mos- 
quito fleet of sampans, all eager to be the first to obtain my 
patronage. The first that came alongside was "manned" by four 
young girls, fifteen or sixteen years of age. Their object was 
to secure the washing from the ship. They were bright and 
good-looking sole-leather-coloured witches, and the way they 
laid hold of my Jacks showed that the old duds from the fore- 
castle were theirs sure, and they were not long in bringing the 
mates round, too. What a spectacle! Here are now four young 
misses, by the accident of birth reduced to this degrading re- 
source to obtain a livelihood, while others of their sex, better 
born, are figuring in high life, provided with all the luxuries of 
aristocracy, and one alone, also by accident of birth, is Queen 
of England. But which of all is the happiest? For that is the 
grand question, after all. 

My ship is like a successful candidate after an election to an 
office of patronage; on both sides and all about are sampans, 
tailors, barbers, shoemakers, carpenters, blacksmiths and paint- 
ers. They all have recommendations from American shipmates, 
certifying that they are the most honest among the Chinamen, 
when probably the signers never employed any other. I never 
pay any regard to a shipmaster's recommendation, and, suppos- 
ing that others pay as little to mine, I have adopted, as a general 
rule, this style : "I certify that I have employed, as tailor, the 
bearer, Chang-Cheng-Ching-Chong-Chung, and believing that if 
well looked after he will not cheat any more than his compet- 
itors, I recommend him accordingly." 

After breakfast I started in a sampan for Canton, a distance 
of about twelve miles. The river has several branches and is 
very crooked, and the scene is continually changing. The grounds 
are all highly cultivated, the lowlands in rice and the elevated 
grounds formed into terraces and planted in garden vegetables. 



156 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

Oranges, bananas and other tropical fruits are growing profusely 
around. 

The river is full of boats, of all shapes and sizes from the 
unwieldy junk down to the humble cockle- woman in her bread- 
trough. I have no doubt I passed ten thousand craft between 
Whampoa and Canton. In every boat were women and chil- 
dren. It is surprising to see how dextrously they manage to keep 
clear of one another. As we came abreast of the city, the banks 
of the river were completely hidden from view by the absolute 
jam of boats, and I did not see how we were to effect a landing. 
But my sampan woman was at home; she drove ahead, clearing 
one and shoving another, till we came to a narrow lane through 
this city of boats, which led to a small dock appropriated to 
the use of the gentry, but closed to the common herd by a boom, 
which was drawn aside, as we approached, by a woman, and we 
shot through into a beautiful little basin with granite steps. 

I jumped on shore and found myself in a charming park, 
where were flowers of every hue and perfume, and, coming upon 
me so suddenly, the effect was enchanting. Here the English 
and American flags were flying from lofty masts, to indicate the 
kings of the American and English merchants who occupy a 
range of lofty mansions in front. A very neat English chapel 
stands in the center of this park. 

I stood for a few moments gazing about; a dozen Chinese 
sharpers were on the lookout ; they knew that I was a stranger 
and boarded me on all quarters, each one insisting on taking me 
away to his shop, "nolens volens," and declaring that he was the 
only honest one among them. I saw the sign of the American 
eagle in front, indicating the Consulate, and stepped in to en- 
quire the way to my consignee's, and was kindly furnished with 
a guide. 

Having entered my vessel, made arrangements for discharg- 
ing my cargo and taken "tiffin" (midday lunch) with my con- 
signee (dinner hour being 5 p. m.), I returned to my ship, leav- 
ing it for a more convenient opportunity to take a look at all a 
barbarian is allowed to see of the celestial city. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

It is now about the time of breaking up of the northeast 
monsoon, which has been blowing for six months. The weather 
is cold and wet, and fires are required; as for the sun, he has 
not been seen for a week. Whampoa is nothing more than a 
cluster of huts and hovels standing over the river on piles or 
stakes driven into the mud, extending in two ranges along the 
river's bank about two miles. The land on both sides of the 
river is alluvial, that is, it is composed of a deposit of mud 
brought down from the mountains and hills by the rains and 
floods of the centuries that have passed since the last grand 
convulsion left the earth in its present form. It is appropriated 
to the cultivation of rice, which is the principal food of the 
Chinese. So vast is the population and so great the demand for 
rice that they devote every foot of available ground to its culti- 
vation, and encroach upon the river for a residence. Agriculture 
is esteemed the most honourable employment in China. 

At the commencement of the year, the Emperor, who is 
styled "Holy Son of Heaven, sole guardian of the earth and 
brother of the Sun," installs the season by a state ceremony of 
great importance. As the high priest of the empire, he prostrates 
himself, touches the ground with his head, invoking the blessing 
of Heaven upon the labours of his people, then with his own 
hands he sacrifices a bullock as an offering to the Great Being. 
Next throwing aside his imperial robes, he holds the state plow, 
which looks more like a snow drag than an agricultural imple- 
ment, drawn by a pair of celestial oxen (kept for this purpose, 
and profusely decorated), and opens the first furrow of the 
year. Then the mandarins follow his example in regular suc- 
cession according to rank, down to the lowest pig-tail of aris- 
tocracy. After this ceremony the common herd may plow and 
plant and wag their pig-tails to their own tune. 

This is a nation of thieves ; from the mandarin to the scaven- 
ger, men, women and children seem to consider it creditable to 

157 



i S 8 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

steal everything that they can lay their hands on, and the stricter 
the lookout that is kept for them the greater is the exploit, if 
they can escape detection. They will even steal the copper off 
a ship's bottom, and that under water, too, and having melted it 
over they will bring it on board the same ship for sale in the 
shape of thowlpins or thimbles. We are obliged to keep guard 
boats ahead and astern during the night, but I expect it is like 
setting a thief to catch a thief. 

While my mate and I were at breakfast I heard a rattling of 
some rattans that lay on deck ; the mate ran out and found a boy 
carrying a bundle of them across two lighters that lay along- 
side, with at least twenty men in them, not one of whom would 
lift a finger to stop him. The mate gave chase, but the young 
urchin reached his sampan and was off. I then sent him in 
pursuit in the ship's hired sampan, but although there were only 
two little boys of them, and the mate had three Chinese men and 
one woman in his boat, yet they could not, or would not, over- 
take the rogue, and he was obliged to give up the chase and 
return, at which all the lightermen and all the boatmen and 
women within sight set up a great shout. 

They are also a savage and bloodthirsty race. Yesterday a 
quarrel took place between the crews of two large lighters while 
lying alongside my barque. They resorted to cutlasses and 
boarding pikes and several severe stabs and cuts were given 
and received. The row continued about an hour, until the 
women, who had till then been looking on and encouraging their 
own men, thought it time to interfere ; they rushed in among the 
combatants and soon laid them "hors du combat." It is dan- 
gerous for a foreigner to be out at night, for both on land and 
water he would be likely to be waylaid by highwaymen or pirat- 
ical boats upon the river, and the government takes no steps to 
suppress these marauders. 

March 7th. — I have been up to the city to-day and chartered 
my barque to take a load of teas to Liverpool at three guineas 
per ton, which is three shillings more than the large clipper ships 
are getting. The reason is, that my vessel being of moderate 
size, the charterers have just about as much as will load her, and 
require dispatch. 



OBSERVATIONS 159 

I went up to the top of my consignee's house, a four-story 
building, standing near the wall of the city, to get a bird's-eye 
view of this far-famed place, and what did I see? Nothing but 
a conglomerated jumble of red-tiled roofs of low buildings, 
crowded into a gallimaufry, with here and there an ugly square 
building rising higher than the mass, and a clumsy pagoda, situ- 
ated on a knoll, which I was told was the principal Joss house 
or temple. 

I also went on a cruise of observation in the outside town, 
which is a large city of itself, only separated by a wall from 
the city of cities. I perambulated the narrow and crooked lanes 
for an hour, wondering at the inexhaustible variety of rich goods 
displayed, and the incongruity of the arrangement, a "magazin 
du mode" with a butcher's stall in one side and a fishwoman's 
stand on the other. The lantern shops are the most gaudy, dis- 
playing their inimitable wares beautifully painted on a fine trans- 
parent silk. Some of the lanterns hanging about are eight or 
ten feet high and four to six feet across, with six faces covered 
with this silk, painted in most exquisite style. When lighted up 
at night the display is inconceivably bright and beautiful. 

I understand that during their New Year's festival they have 
what is called the "Feast of Lanterns" ; on this occasion the 
display is almost incredible. Fifty million of these gaudy toys 
all glittering at once ! 

After an hour spent in slowly wandering about, gazing at 
the confused and heterogeneous mixture of gaudy glitter and 
gorgeous grossness, pretending to be deaf and dumb in order 
to escape the annoying importunity of the shopmen, I came 
unexpectedly to the city wall. The gate was open, and I had a 
glimpse through, but I saw nothing more than a continuation 
of the same lane I was in, about ten feet wide, paved with flat 
stones, with a continued and uninterrupted range of one-story 
buildings and an unbroken line of piazzas to shield the celestial 
pigtails from the burning rays of the sun. The wall is com- 
posed of small stones, blue bricks and mud, about twenty feet 
high, and forms the back side of a tier of shops ten or twelve 
feet square. They are all open in front, and the shopkeepers 



160 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

were all standing outside on the lookout for customers. If a 
stranger comes along, they pounce upon him like hungry wolves. 

I have so far escaped being fleeced, but I was induced to 
enter one of the shops and will try to describe my reception. 
There were two fellows dressed thus : blue gowns, yellow trousers 
made full to just below the knees and there drawn in round a 
pair of bright red silk leggings; fancy shoes with wooden soles 
and the toes turned up like a boy's skate; a profusion of black 
hair hanging down behind and twisted into a cable long enough 
to reach the ground. They seized me by both hands and led me 
to a seat, with a "Good morning, Missur Captin," in pretty good 
English. Then, "Whar cum from; you Ingly (English) or 
Mullican (American) ? You no Frenchman, me savvey. What 
you buy? Me got number one ting. Me no cheatee you, me 
speakee you proper, me tellee you truf. Sposee you wantee 
shawl, silk dress, picter, lacquer ware, eberyting me got. You 
sittee down, me makee you lookee. You rite name in te book; 
ah! me know you, me see you 'fore, you kersind to Missur 
Sweman, he very good man. What you want lookee? You see 
silk hancher ? 'Nother man cheatee you, me no cheatee ; spose 
me cheatee you, you no come my shop again" ; — and so they went 
on, flapping their tongues as though they were hung on springs 
of india rubber, a perpetual motion machine. They watched me 
with the glance of a hawk ; if my eye rested for a moment on 
any object, the next moment it was down and spread out before 
me. After amusing myself for half an hour in examining their 
variety of rich goods, I purchased three dozen of fans and a 
bamboo lounging chair, to keep them in good humour, and came 
away. 

There is a beautiful tree grows in China and in all the eastern 
tropical islands ; its uses are so various that the bamboo may well 
be called the friend of the Chinaman. "The shoots are boiled, 
pickled and comfited ; the roots are carved into cane and umbrella 
handles ; the tapering stems are used for all the purposes that 
poles can be applied to, — in carrying, supporting, propelling 
and measuring; for the props of houses and the ribs of sails, 
the shafts of spears, the wattles of abattoirs, the handles of 
fans and lanterns. The leaves are broad and are sewed together 



BAMBOO 161 

for rain cloaks and thatches. The epidermis is cut into strips 
of various sizes and woven into baskets, plaited into awnings 
and twisted into cables. It furnishes the bed for sleeping, the 
chopsticks for eating, the pipe for smoking, and the broom for 
sweeping ; the chair to sit upon, the table to eat on, and the food 
to eat, also the fuel to cook it with. All are derived from this 
valuable production of the earth in its different stages of growth. 
The pedagogue's ferule and the school boy's book, the skewer to 
pin the hair and the hat to screen the head, the paper to write 
upon, the pen to write with and the cup to hold the ink, the 
yardstick, the liquid measure, the bucket, the bird cage, the 
crabnet, fish pole and sampan, — and so on to the end of a long 
chapter, are all furnished by this plant, whose beauty when 
growing is commensurate with its usefulnesss when cut down." 



CHAPTER XXX. 

I have been much amused by looking at the immense number 
of boats and craft of all kinds as they pass by my vessel. They 
generally go in pairs, two of a kind and exactly alike. First 
come two fishing boats, with long bamboo poles projecting over 
the bows, from which hangs a large dip-net, which they lower 
into the river, and, after a while, draw up to gather out their 
haul. Then two little bamboo shells of the more humble fisher- 
women, whose business is to gather up mussels and cockles from 
the bottom, which they do by means of a rake with a small bag 
attached. Next comes a pair of cargo boats roofed over with 
bamboos and mats, looking like mastodon turtles. Then a lonely 
lorcha, a sort of nondescript and quite likely a pirate. Then a 
mandarin's bungalow, with a hundred oars, on the lookout for 
opium smugglers ; though, if they fall in with one, they will 
first show fight and then allow her to run away, well knowing 
that they shall receive more "cumshaw" or bonus from the 
owners of the opium for letting her pass than they would from 
the government for securing her. 

Now comes along a great, uncouth-looking ark called a junk, 
bound to sea. She has two great glaring eyes painted on her 
bows, "without which she could not see which way to go"; 
an immense crooked piece of timber projects over each bow, 
loaded with stones, which are the anchors. A pigtailed sailor 
stands mounted away up on the lofty sternpoop, thundering 
away for dear life upon an infernal twanging gong, as though 
they thought she was superior to anything else floating on the 
river. Sampans and sampitans are all the time passing and 
repassing, and occasionally a London wherry from the city is 
whirled along by four or six sculls, with a cockney stuck up in 
the stern, in his fancy boat-dress and a jockey cap, looking as 
important as though he thought no one else had any right to 
be in China but himself, poor fool. The sails of these craft are 
all made of mats, and as they are seen passing on some of the 

162 




2 * 

ID v 

UJ g 

UJ * 

S e 

< § 



OS 



CHINESE WOMEN 163 

numerous windings of the river over the marshes, they look like 
great haystacks moving along without any visible means of 
propulsion. 

I have before estimated the number of craft that I passed 
on my first trip to Canton at ten thousand. I have since seen 
the report of the mandarin, whose business it is to collect taxes, 
in which he fixes the number of sampans alone at seventy thou- 
sand. Now, allowing each sampan a family of five, we have 
three hundred and fifty thousand, to which add the number 
living in cargo boats and other river craft, at least one hundred 
and fifty thousand, and we have a grand total of half a million 
people living altogether on the water, and scarcely ever putting 
foot upon the land. 

The Chinese have no national coins of gold or silver; the 
only native piece of money is a small piece of adulterated copper 
of no greater value than about the twelfth part of a cent. These 
pieces have a space cut out in the center and are strung up in 
bunches of twenty-five, fifty and one hundred. The nominal 
currency is tael, mace and cash, decimally, so that it was orig- 
inally intended that one thousand cash (the copper coin above 
mentioned) should be equal to one tael in weight of sycee or 
pure silver, but these miserable pieces of money have become 
so adulterated that it now takes sixteen or seventeen hundred. 
The circulating medium at Canton is broken Spanish dollars, 
one dollar being equal to seven-one-hundredths of a tael, or, 
more nearly, seven hundred and twenty taels equal one thousand 
dollars, and one tael is about six shilling eight pence British 
sterling. Gold is unknown except as an article of merchandise. 

In China all foreigners are considered to be barbarians, and 
are not allowed to enter within the walls of Canton. This is 
not only contrary to law, but it also accords with the common 
prejudice ; they will come outside the walls and hold intercourse 
with the "barbarians," but if a foreigner should venture within 
the city proper, he would be likely to be insulted and maltreated 
by the first party he would meet. 

The women of the higher classes, the small-footed ladies, 
are not visible to foreigners, except when, on some extraordinary 
occasion, a family may come outside the walls and, by favour, 



164 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

a foreigner may be accorded an introduction. The women that 
may be seen in boats are the wives and daughters of the boat- 
men, mechanics and labourers. They go barefooted and their 
"peds" are big enough, in all conscience. 

Theirs is the bloomer costume in its primitive style, loose 
trousers reaching just below the knees and a frock made like 
a man's shirt, generally of blue nankin. Their hair, always 
as black as jet and as glossy as silk, is curiously twisted up and 
fastened on the top of the head, so as to resemble the crest of a 
Grecian helmet, or, more nearly, the handle of a knife tray. The 
men braid theirs and let it hang down behind, and if it is not 
long enough to draggle on the ground they tail it out with black 
silk. 

Business is managed here with very little trouble to the mer- 
chant or shipmaster. If a merchant wishes to purchase and ship 
a cargo of teas, he sends for a broker, who knows every chest 
of tea there is in the Hong, and brings him samples. The Hong 
price is a fixture, and all the merchant has to do is to make his 
selection from the samples and give his order to the broker, 
with directions to put it on board a certain ship. Two days 
afterwards the teas are certain to be alongside the ship, and all 
the master or mate has to do is to see that they receive the right 
number of chests, and to look out that none is stolen while pass- 
ing from the lighter down the hatchway; for even this is some- 
times done by these keen villains. An air port in the ship's side 
between decks is a very convenient theft hole for them. 

The shipmaster is also relieved from many an irksome mat- 
ter by the Comprador, whose business is to provide everything 
that the ship requires. A large, pot-bellied Chinaman, who 
passes by the soubriquet of "Boston Jack," acts as American 
Comprador. He sends his runners on board the ships every 
morning to see what is wanted for the day, and it is at once 
sent on board. He charges nothing for his services, but has 
got rich from his intercourse with Americans. He receives from 
the seller a "cumshaw" on everything. Butchers, bakers, car- 
penters, riggers, etc., all pay tribute to him, and this system has 
become so rooted that it cannot be broken up. No one will deal 
directly with the captain of a ship. It is about thirty-five years 



OFF FOR AMOY 165 

since Americans began to trade at Canton, and now they stand 
first among all foreign traders. 

May 25. — I have been disappointed and deceived in regard 
to the charter which I had negotiated. It was a condition that 
the barque should be approved by the underwriters. Their sur- 
veyor examined her and recommended sundry matters to be 
done, when he said she would answer. I went to work to do 
what he required, and, having got all done, at a cost of $500, I 
went up to the city to report myself ready for cargo, and had 
the mortification to learn that underwriters had decided not to 
take any risk on my vessel. I thought I saw straight through 
this affair at once. Another vessel about the same size had 
come in while I was busy with my repairs and had offered to 
take the cargo three shillings cheaper than I was to have. I 
could not help myself, but I could not refrain from telling my 
gentlemanly charterers that it was my opinion, if freights had 
advanced, the Arco Iris would have been considered a good risk. 

I was now "thrown on my oars," as sailors say; it would be 
of no use to look for another European freight, and there was 
nothing going to the United States. My only resource was to 
try for local business again, and in a day or two I obtained 
a load of cotton for Amoy at $2 a bale. Amoy is a port on the 
east coast about three hundred and fifty miles from Canton. 

As violent and dishonest as are these Chinese, they have yet 
some redeeming qualities. They are never above their business, 
very industrious, always cheerful and even gay, which, doubtless, 
is owing to the fewness of their wants, and, consequently, free- 
dom from care. They are very polite, never meeting or leaving 
a stranger without a salaam. 

They have many simple and ingenious contrivances for sav- 
ing labour. They scull their boats and even large vessels by one, 
two and sometimes five or six large oars, or sweeps. This with 
us is laborious, but they have a tripline from the handle of the 
sweep which is made fast to an eyebolt in the after-thwart. This 
serves to regulate the motions of the oar and counterbalance 
the weight astern, and all they have to do is to walk across the 
thwart holding the handle ; the line gives the blade of the oar 
a proper inclination and depresses the inner end and raises the 



166 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

blade as it is carried past the center to either side. It is a 
simple contrivance, but I have seen a woman and even a child 
propel a sampan faster than two sailors could row a ship's yawl. 

The carpenter's tools at first sight seem rude and clumsy to 
a Yankee, but to see them handle them one must confess that 
they do not work so hard and can accomplish more than our 
carpenters. Take even their gimlets, for instance; instead of 
twisting their fingers almost out of joint, as I have sometimes 
done in making a small nail hole, they use a spindle drill, which 
they whirl rapidly round, by means of a staff and line, like a 
fiddle bow, and will make ten holes to my one and never split 
the timbers. They paint better than we do; the paint is mixed 
thick and one man passes along daubing on a coat of paint with 
a wad of tow, while another follows with a very fine and stiff 
brush, smoothing it over, leaving a fine polished surface. 

But they are destitute of the phrenological bump of origin- 
ality, but do everything from copy, and copy exactly. A tailor 
cannot take a man's measure and make a garment by it, but must 
have a coat or pantaloons to go by. A story is told of a mid- 
shipman who ordered half a dozen pairs of pantaloons, and gave 
the tailor an old pair as a guide. Now, Mr. Middy was just off 
from a long cruise and had been "hard up" for breeches, and 
had patched the pattern pair with a black knee piece on blue 
cloth. When Snip brought the new ones, they were a "facsimile" 
of the old, every pair being ornamented with black knees. 

I myself gave my tailor a pair to make another by. Now it 
happens that my props are uneven, either my right leg is longer 
than my left, or else my left is shorter than my right, and I am 
obliged to have an inch difference in the legs of my unmention- 
ables. I forgot to tell my tailor of this, but when he brought the 
new ones, they were all right; he had discovered the difference, 
and without knowing whether it happened by design or accident, 
he followed the copy. There was not the difference of a line in 
the position of the buttons, and it is not unlikely that each pair 
contains the same number of stitches. 

Their patience is wonderful ; their fancy carved work is 
wrought in the most minute and elaborate manner. To the 
naked eye, they appear to be a confused mass of the most deli- 
cate workmanship, but examine them through a microscope, and 



FOREIGN RELATIONS 167 

you will find that the human figures, with a head no larger 
than a pin's head, have eyes, nose, mouth and chin, all in their 
proper places, with an expression suited to the design. 

They do not use knives and forks. Their food is principally 
rice and "chowchow" or hash, and they use two small sticks like 
lead pencils. These are held between the fingers, so as to bring 
the two ends together or separate to suit the article they are eat- 
ing ; and although a fast-eating Yankee would starve if compelled 
to eat with chopsticks, yet I do not see but the Chinese are as 
fat and as hearty as any people. 

On the whole, I consider the Chinese as an anomalous race, 
lazily active, ignorantly shrewd, and honestly defrauding. But 
in their own opinion, they are the Celestial race, and their Em- 
peror is brother to the Sun, and all other people are of an in- 
ferior order. Notwithstanding the unjust cause of the late war, 
I think it would have been well if, when the English had them 
completely in their power, they had insisted on a free inter- 
course with all nations, for the world is the common property 
of all its inhabitants, and no nation has a right to shut itself 
up and say to other nations, "We will exclude you from all par- 
ticipation in the advantages which it pleased the Creator to be- 
stow on us alone." I consider that every human being, wherever 
born, has an undoubted natural right to migrate to any other 
part of God's earth, and so long as he conforms to the laws 
of the land of his adoption, he should be protected in his person 
and property. When I hear one of my own countrymen cry out 
against foreign immigration, and curse the Irishmen, who have 
been driven by poverty and famine to seek a home with us, I 
am tempted to say to him, "Stop, brother, the Irishmen, too, 
are our brothers." If nations can exclude others, states, towns 
and counties can do so, too, and the world would become a het- 
erogeneous gallimaufry of selfish and unchristian communities. 

I left Whampoa on the 6th of April, passed through the road- 
stead of Hong Kong the next morning, and proceeded to sea, 
just in time to encounter a gale from the eastward. After con- 
tending against it for three days and losing ground, I bore up 
and running in among numerous islands, I came to anchor un- 
der the southwest side of Hong Kong. Started again on the 
1 2th, and was ten days beating up to Amoy. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Amoy, April 23. — I have now found my way into another of 
the seaports of China. I have coasted along the south east quar- 
ter of the misnamed "Celestial Empire" (certainly never was a 
name so misapplied). The coast is as barren and uninviting as 
any part of Maine or .Nova Scotia. Sandy desert and rocky 
promontories intermingled without any appearance of cultiva- 
tion. The overgrown population have seized upon every spot at 
all suited for a townsite, and between Hong Kong and Amoy 
are fifteen large cities, built on the banks of rivulets that will 
admit only fishing junks, which are innumerable all along the 
coast. Fishing and salt making appear to be the only sources 
of livelihood for the millions who dwell along shore. About 
midway there is an island situated near the coast, forming a 
good harbor. The opium smugglers have seized upon this place 
as a "depot" for their drug, which is a -contraband. Here they 
keep receiving ships, with a supply always on hand ready to 
be run into any place, where it may be wanted, and although it 
is a strictly forbidden trade, still they lie here in defiance of the 
government, which takes no measures to stop it. 

Amoy is a constipated homogeneity. There are about a dozen 
brick and plastered buildings of some pretension standing front- 
ing the water with small jetties in front. These are the dwell- 
ings and "Godowns" of the foreign merchants, chiefly English, 
and between, behind and all around are the Chinese huts and 
hovels crowded into all shapes, from a triangle to a duodecagon, 
with zigzag lanes and alleys from six to' ten feet wide intersect- 
ing them in all directions, making the town a labyrinth or spid- 
er's web. The lanes and alleys are neglected and filthy, and 
the shops or shanties, many of them, such as a New England 
farmer would scorn to put his swine into. And yet they display 
an endless variety of rich goods. 

April 26. — I started out for a ramble through this network 
of nastiness and glitter. The back part of my merchant's prem- 

168 



AMOY 169 

ises opens into one of the worst of these lanes, and I hesitated 
some time before I ventured to make a plunge. I turned the 
tirst corner to the left, and came butt against a coolie carrying 
two bags of rice slung to the ends of a bamboo pole across his 
back (in this manner all the portering is done, they have no 
carts or drays). He took up the whole width of the alley, and 
I was obliged to squeeze myself into a flapjack to let him pass. 
The lane soon took a short turn to the right and six rods further 
on was cut short of! by a cross lane. I turned to the left and 
then again to the right, and directly after the passage ran up a 
flight of twenty stone steps. Up these I mounted and started 
on at random. I cannot keep the run of my tacks any longer. 
I found I was ascending some elevation, but nothing could be 
seen but the continued jam of all sorts of tradesmen's shops. 

At length the lane opened suddenly into a large open space 
on the side of a steep hill ; the space was encumbered with great 
rock cut and distorted into all conceivable shapes. This was an 
old graveyard, and every interval between the rocks was strewn 
with the sculls and bones of the long-since dead, which had been 
exhumed to give place to others. I passed on through this city 
of unnumbered dead, reflecting upon the inconceivable multi- 
tude of human beings who have lived and died since the time 
of our common progenitor, and wondering where they would 
have found standing room on the earth if he had not eaten of 
that forbidden fruit, and by that act, brought on his race "death 
and all our woes." 

I ascended the hill for a view of the surrounding country ; 
the top of the mount was a huge pile of granite which had for- 
merly been one solid mass, but now rent into several pieces, 
some of which as they fell off from the mass, remained in an in- 
clined position, leaving a shelter under the lower side. The 
Chinese have improved these spots for residences, digging away 
under the rocks, they have formed small caverns, and there they 
live in hordes, reminding me of a tribe of gypsies dwelling in 
the "Devil's Den" in Old Town. 

The view from hence was rugged, grand and romantic; to 
the southeast at the distance of ten miles was the sea, dotted 
with junk and lorchas. In every other direction, it appeared 



i 7 o A PIONEER VOYAGE 

as though the whole country had once been a vast bed of granite, 
but by some tremendous convulsion, was riven into all sorts of 
forms, thus letting arms of the sea into the interior in every di- 
rection. To the northwest a broad but crooked estuary leads 
up about twenty-five miles to Chintan, a large inland city said 
to contain a million inhabitants, and to which Amoy serves as 
a seaport. To the northeast and north the waters which make 
Amoy an island, and beyond mountains upon mountains rise like 
a vast terrace surmounted by a dim vision of the heights of Koeit 
Cheou. I said the view was grand; some one has said that 
"there is but a step from the sublime to the ridiculous," and 
having satiated my curiosity with the distant vision, I cast my 
eyes down upon the pig sties of Amoy and felt the full force of 
the adage. 

Returning, I lost my way, and wandered about for more than 
an hour, several times passing the same spot and taking a new 
departure ; but all my nautical skill was at fault here. As I was 
wandering along, conning my way to keep clear of innumerable 
obstacles, I would occasionally hear a grunt behind, and turn 
to look, but before I could guard myself, I would be bumped 
by a bag of rice or a bale of cotton, and sometimes by something 
more offensive. At one place I found the passage completely 
blocked up by a crowd with a tribe of strolling players or 
mountebanks. These fellows place their temporary stage in the 
lane, and commence playing their antics; they are masked and 
dressed in a fantastic style like the clown in a circus. They stand 
still as statues and look as grave as though they were solemniz- 
ing a funeral. The gist of their performance seems to consist 
in occasionally removing the mask and screwing their features 
into a most unnatural shape, and occasionally screaming and 
screeching in a forced tone, like a flock of wild geese. Their 
orchestra consisted of several wind instruments squeaking out in 
feeble imitation of the Scotch bagpipe, accompanied by two or 
three gongs, sounding like the caterwauling of fifty of the feline 
race, with the jingling of a brass kettle and a frying pan. 

I also fell in with a nondescript individual who composed a 
complete band in his own person; he had somehow acquired a 
smattering of European taste. He had on the top of his head a 



AMOY 171 

branch of some kind of shrub, with a number of small bells 
of different tones ; a shepherd's range of pipes was fastened on 
his chin, and a small flageolet was fixed in each nostril ; a bass 
drum was lashed to his back and the sticks fixed on to his el- 
bows ; a hurdy-gurdy was slung in front ; a pair of cymbals was 
attached to his knees, and other strings of bells encircled his an- 
kles. He marched along the narrow lanes, with an air of pom- 
posity which made the Celestial pigtails stand back to let him 
pass. He shook his head and the bells chimed, he slewed his 
mouth and the pipes whistled, he blew his nose and set the flag- 
eolets squealing, he brought his elbows back and whang went 
the bass drum, brought his knees together and clang went the 
cymbals, and as he stepped, he brought his feet down with a 
jerk and tinkled the ankle bells, while all the time he turned the 
crank of the hurdy-gurdy with one hand and managed the stops 
with the other. Altogether he managed to raise a discord al- 
most equal to a modern church choir with their chromatics, 
diatonics and inharmonics. 

In another place was a "Chin Chin to Joss." Now, it may be 
asked, what is a "Chin Chin to Joss ?" It is this — Joss is the Chi- 
nese term for the Deity, and chin chin means a salute or rev- 
erential ceremony, and the term may be translated the "worship 
of God." Priests are employed to visit the houses and perform 
their chin chin, which they do in the street like the strolling play- 
ers, on a temporary stage, with a profusion of candles and sacred 
symbols. 

At last, after an hour's rambling, I got a glimpse of the 
lookout on one of the merchant's houses in front and half a 
dozen more tacks to port and starboard brought me out to the 
water's edge, three jetties from my consignee's quarters. There 
was not passage in front, and I was obliged to go back again 
into the network of alleys, and when I next came out in front 
I was as far the other side of my friends, and I took a sampan 
and finished my jaunt by water. I found my friends quite anx- 
ious at my long absence, and Mr. Tait said I had been very im- 
prudent to venture about alone as I had done. But I have always 
an unconquerable desire to see all I can wherever I go, and 
climb the loftiest eminences. 



172 



A PIONEER VOYAGE 



With this view I once ascended the spire of the Cathedral at 
Riga, which rises to the height of four hundred and thirty-five 
feet; the last fifty feet I ascended by means of a rope Jacob's 
ladder, until my shoulders brought up in the apex. Here was 
a small window for a lookout, and you may imagine, but I can- 
not describe my sensations. Above me was a globe of copper 
gilt ten or twelve feet in diameter, and this was surmounted by 
a large cross. While gazing upward at these, the clapper of the 
huge bell in the tower beneath struck out the hour of ten, and 
at every blow the ball and cross seemed to vibrate as though 
the next whang would destroy the perpendicular, and send us 
tumbling headlong to the pavement. I have also been to the 
top of the leaning tower at Pisa, another nerve-shaking position, 
and I have stood upon the topmost pinnacle of the Rock of Gi- 
braltar. 

I found, as I was strolling through the lanes of Amoy, that 
I was a lion or an elephant. In front of every shop there was 
always one and sometimes several persons listlessly lounging. 
Seeing me coming, they would dodge in, and immediately a 
whole tribe, old, young and middle-aged, would come tumbling 
out to have a look, and by the time I got to the end of my jaunt 
there was a crowd of fifty of the squalid wretches following me 
like Yankee boys at a military parade. 

The Chinese seem to delight in the unnatural. The style of 
their houses and their ships shows their incomprehension or dis- 
regard of symmetry and convenience. Even the granite rocks 
could not be left as nature left them, but in many places seem 
to have been distorted by human hands. The outer shore of this 
harbor on the north side is comprised of sand ; and lying on the 
surface is a mass of granite weighing a thousand tons, half a 
mile from any other mass. They write unnaturally; either ver- 
tically from the top of the sheet to the bottom, or if they do 
sometimes write horizontally, they begin at the right of the line 
and scribble towards the left. 

The national character of the Chinese results from their fixed 
adherence to ancient customs, and they worship and venerate 
the aged, and perform religious ceremonies around the tombs 
of their ancestors, and the son or daughter who fails in respect 



AMOY 173 

to parents is considered worse than an infidel. Spirituous liq- 
uor as a beverage is scarcely known among them, but the use 
of tea is universal, and they exhilarate and stupefy themselves 
by the use of opium. Women are considered in the light of 
slaves, and it is no uncommon thing to see them yoked together 
in plowing the ground and other beastly labor. 

May 1. — I have to-day chartered my barque to take a cargo 
to Manila for one thousand dollars, with the prospect of hav- 
ing from two hundred to two hundred and fifty deck passengers 
at eight dollars a head, they furnishing their own rice. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

Sunday, May 2. — I have this day been to church ! And what 
a church! A short time since the British Consul being in Cal- 
cutta, proposed to the bishop there to send a chaplain to Amoy, 
and the bishop, having a number of supernumeraries on his 
hands, was of course glad of an opportunity to place one of 
them, and sent him up here, with the understanding that the 
Europeans settled here would support him. A fund was raised 
by subscription, the aforesaid consular dignitary heading it with 
a yearly subscription of $100, the other residents following, some 
to the tune of $100, others 50 cents and so on. But the religious 
excitement soon fagged out, the subscribers continue to pay up, 
but leave the parson to preach to an empty house. There were 
seven ladies and three children, an English shipmaster and my- 
self composing the congregation. It was the flattest thing im- 
aginable, the services at church. 

Having mentioned the English Consul leads me to remark 
that her majesty Queen Victoria has some seven or eight sub- 
jects residing here, and to protect their interest, she — no, the 
English nation — keeps up the following establishment in Amoy: 

Consul £1,200 

Vice ditto 800 

Interpreter 800 

Ditto assistant 600 

Linguist 500 

Ditto assistant 400 

Surgeon 700 

Coolies and incidentals 1,000 



£6,000 or $30,000 

I have to record here a most melancholy catastrophe. For a 
few years past a great number of Chinese coolies have been sent 
from this country to Peru, to work in the mines and on the 
Guano islands. The poor creatures are induced to embark on 

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SLAVERY I75 

these expeditions by fraudulent representations. They have not 
the means of paying for their passage, and are induced to bind 
themselves to work three years for their food and clothing, and 
at the expiration of that time to be free. But when once there 
they become slaves, and worse than slaves, for their master or 
owner has no inducement to keep them in good working con- 
dition when their time of service is drawing to a close. The 
most horrible accounts have been received from Peru within 
the last year, yet still the traffic is carried on, generally by foul 
means. 

A few weeks since the ship Robert Bowne of New York, 
Capt. Brison, who, I believe, belonged to New Haven, started 
from this place with upwards of four hundred of these poor 
creatures on board ; she was ostensibly bound to San Francisco. 
When about two weeks out, they learned through an interpreter 
who had overheard some conversation between the captain and 
his mate, that they were destined for Peru, and they rose in 
their desperation, murdered the captain and his officers, and com- 
pelled the seamen to land them on an island somewhere to the 
northeast of Formosa. When they had all but about twenty 
gone on shore, the crew succeeded in confining these twenty, and 
brought the ship back to Amoy. This is the story as told by 
the crew. A man-o'-war and a steamer have gone in search of 
the island. Now, piratical as this story appears, I have no hesita- 
tion in saying that I believe the captain brought this catastrophe 
upon himself. I have no doubt his object was to take the poor 
wretches to Callao on speculation. This is evident from his 
having so many on board, for he ' must have known that the 
passenger law would not allow him to bring more than 250 steer- 
age passengers into the United States, and his ship would have 
been confiscated on his arrival at San Francisco. 

There is another circumstance, too, of a most outrageous and 
certainly exceedingly imprudent nature. Captain Brison took 
the dangerous liberty to cut off the queues of the greater part of 
these people. I have frequently spoken of a Chinaman's pig- 
tail. Now, ridiculous as these appendages seem to us, they con- 
sider them sacred, and it is esteemed in China the greatest of all 
punishments to deprive a culprit of his queue. Now, when you 



i 7 6 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

think of the three hundred of these betrayed wretches mutilated 
in this way and the rest of them in constant dread of undergoing 
the same sacrifice, I say the catastrophe is no more than might 
have been expected. 

How prone is human nature to oppression. A braggart 
whom the accident of birth and fortune has placed in a station 
above some of his fellow creatures, treats those over whom he 
has a temporary authority as though they were not of the same 
flesh and blood as himself, a sure sign of a miserable coward 
when brought in contact with his equals. I did not know Cap- 
tain Brison. He is said to have been sole owner of the Robert 
Bowne, which he had bought in San Francisco for a trifle. The 
American Consul at this place is accused of being concerned 
in this worse than African slave trade. 

Opposite to Amoy, and forming one side of its harbor, is a 
romantic island with the mellifluent name of Kolangsee. I took 
my boat and sailed over to take a survey of it. It is a curious 
mingling of granite and rich soil, cultivated in every spot, where 
a spade can be used. Rocks from the size of a barrel to that 
of a church lie piled up on one another in a singular manner, 
presenting every possible variety of form, and between the clus- 
ters of rocks, every foot of space is occupied either as a grave 
or a cabbage patch, and in many places the vegetables are grow- 
ing over the graves. The faces of the rocks are carved and fig- 
ured in memory of the dead. There was one piece of granite 
with a perpendicular face fifty feet high and as many broad 
fronting the town ; the whole of this face is cut in Chinese char- 
acters ; it is an epitaph to some one who, not content with a com- 
mon tombstone, left a sum of money to construct this everlasting 
monument. 

Having wandered to the top of the dividing ridge, I was sur- 
prised to find a very pretty looking village down at the base of 
the rocks on the other side. The descent to it was literally clear 
of rocks and was formed into a series of terraces, rising one 
above another, like a huge staircase. These terraces were all 
formed on a perfect level and surrounded with small embank- 
ments a few inches high, and were planted in rice. They were 
kept irrigated by water from springs in the elevations, which 



KOLANGSEE 177 

was conducted to the upper terrace through a little canal; from 
this a cut in the embankment let off the surplus water to the 
next terrace below, from that to the third in the same way, and 
so on to the lower terrace, and from that to the sea. 

As I stood on the ridge looking about, a parcel of dogs down 
in the village set up a yelping, and immediately a posse of sol- 
diers came tumbling out of a small building, probably their bar- 
racks, and began to blaze away with their matchlocks. At first 
T thought I might be treading on forbidden ground, but presently 
recollecting of having heard others talk of their strolls on Kol- 
angsee, I ventured to descend to the valley, and the illusion van- 
ished. What I took to be a neat little village proved to be, like 
all other Chinese towns, a motley collection of hovels jumbled 
together without regard to order and regularity. All the build- 
ings that evinced any pretension to comfort were deserted, and 
the doors and windows blocked up with stones and brick. This, 
I was informed, was owing to their "Celestial" prejudices. Dur- 
ing the opium war, an English brigade was quartered here, the 
officers took possession of all the best houses, and after they 
had evacuated the place, no Chinaman would succeed the "bar- 
barians" as occupants. The owners will not remove them and 
build others, and there they are to remain, monuments of the dis- 
grace and cowardice of the Chinese. 

Roaming about this village, I came to a spot of about half 
an acre enclosed in a wall of masonry, in European style. This 
was a cemetery for the foreigners and missionaries. I searched 
out the keeper, who very readily and politely opened the gate for 
me. There were about twenty tombs and tablets, and on one of 
the most imposing was this inscription : 

"In Memory of 
Mrs. Clarissa, Wife of 
Rev. Elihu Doty," Etc. 
"Mourn not for me 

When I am gone, 
But meet me, meet me 

Near the Throne." 

Next to that was a smaller tablet, in memory of a child 
of Mr. Doty, eight months old, buried two years afterwards. 



178 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

So it seems Mr. Doty practiced upon the tenor of the sonnet 
that he had caused to be inscribed upon his first wife's tomb, 
He did not mourn long, but hastened home to America, consoled 
himself for her loss in the arms of another, and got back to his 
"field of labor" in time to place her dead child of eight months 
by the side of his first wife, all in about two years. "Weil done, 
good and faithful servant." 

Now, the last person I saw in Whampoa was the Rev. Mr. 
Bonney, American missionary. He came on board my barque 
just as I was getting under way, with a lumbering box, which 
he wished me to carry to Amoy and give to the Rev. Elihu 
Doty, and the first person I saw in Amoy was the Rev. Mr. 
Doty himself. As I was entering the harbor, and before I had 
reached the anchorage, a beautiful barge came alongside rowed 
by four young Chinamen in European costume, with a dashing 
looking cox wain, dressed in a hunting suit with a stylish jockey 
cap; I took him to be a new collector or a custom house in- 
spector. He sprang on deck with a whisking rattan in his hand, 
and advancing to me, extended his hand, with, "Well, Captain, 
got along at last, long passage, glad to see you though, and how 
do you do?" Not knowing the importance of my visitor, I per- 
haps did not receive him with as much dignity as he expected, 
and I was busy in giving directions in shortening sail, prepara- 
tory to coming to anchor, when he obtruded by asking if I had 
anything on board for the Rev Mr. Doty. I told him there was a 
box on board for that gentleman, which awaited his order on 
producing a permit. "Oh, never mind the permit," said he, "I 
am Mr. Doty, and we missionaries do not require permits. I'll 
take the box, if you please, and, Captain, when you come on 
shore, I shall be glad to see you at my residence," pointing to a 
very pretty cottage in the outskirts, half hidden by shrubbery. 
"And, by the way, Captain," he continued, "if you have any 
remittances to make, I shall be glad to furnish you with a bill 
for any amount you may require, for I am all the time drawing 
on the Board at home." 

I looked at his animated face, and thought of the expulsion 
of the money-changers from the temple at Jerusalem by Mr. 
Doty's Lord and Master. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

I suspend my narrative for a page or two to indite 
A Chapter on Missions. 

From early manhood it has been instinctive with me to en- 
quire into the cause or reason of everything, to learn the why 
and the wherefore, and the result of every public enterprise, and 
when called upon to contribute to any common fund, first to 
learn the exact object of that fund, its appropriation and effect, 
or what good it does, and in respect to foreign missions, I have 
never contributed anything, for it has always seemed to me 
that money spent in that way has served to keep up an un- 
healthy excitement in the Christian community, which has tended 
to produce a great amount of individual misery and suffering, 
without any corresponding benefit to the world at large. My 
experience now, after having wandered the world over, and vis- 
ited many of the fields of missionary labors, has tended to con- 
firm my early impressions. I would not say that those who do 
not think as I do are not sincere in their views and efforts, far 
be it from me to be uncharitable in my opinion of others. But 
with the purest motives, that very sincerity has induced many a 
young man and woman, too, to tear themselves away from a 
family circle, where they have been the solace of parents, and 
the delight of friends, and to devote themselves to a life of 
deprivation and suffering in a climate which their constitutions 
were not fitted to encounter, and too often to produce an off- 
spring of puny little innocents, too feeble to endure, and, in 
most cases, the early victims of the mistaken efforts of their 
parents to do the Lord's work for him. 

The first thing a missionary does on reaching his field of 
labor is to endeavor to learn the language — no easy task in most 
cases. While doing this, their ambition to be thought a good 
servant, prompts them to write often to their employers, and to 
make their communications interesting, statements of conver- 

179 



180 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

sions are set forth in enthusiastic terms, which the reality will by 
no means warrant. These letters are published in missionary 
magazines, and devotees at home receive them in the fullest 
sense as literally true, and consider them as remarkable proofs of 
God's favor on their enterprise. 

But, my credulous, though sincere friend, real conversions 
from heathenism, or Mahometanism to Christianity, are like an- 
gels' visits. "Lida Hama," whose case Doctor and Mrs. Bette- 
heim make themselves so eloquent about, was a madman. Has- 
san Armein, whom the Rev. Mr. W. cites as an instance of Di- 
vine grace, as a brand plucked from the burning, was an out- 
cast from his own community on account of his crimes; he can 
receive no countenance from his own fraternity, and, sly dog, 
he resorts to the missionary chapel, puts on a demure face, 
groans and says amen to matters that he can no more under- 
stand than a monkey. The missionary grabs at him, gives him 
food and clothing and treats him like the lost sheep found ; he is 
deceitfully grateful and is pronounced a convert, as something 
rescued from that perdition that must be the fate of the millions 
who have discarded him. 

The Rev. Mr. Doty finds a vagabond at Amoy, poor and un- 
able to find employment; he offers another fit subject for con- 
version; Mr. D. takes an interest in him; the shrewd fellow 
takes advantage of it and professes a hypocritical desire to be- 
come a Christian. Mr. D. solicits employment for him in the 
establishment of Messrs. Tait & Co., and he is duly reported 
a convert. But on the first good opportunity he steals from 
his employer, receives a sound castigation and is discharged. 
Mr. Doty sees no more of him, he was mistaken, that's all, but 
the mistake is not reported at "the Board." 

Now, I venture to say that if an impartial investigation of all 
missionary establishments could be had, nine in ten, if not ninety- 
nine in a hundred, of the reported cases of conversion would be 
found to be of this class. For these miserable returns, contribu- 
tions are extorted from the suffering poor, who are made to be- 
lieve that they are lending to the Lord ; and hundreds of excel- 
lent, but mistaken young men and women have been sacrificed, 
and children born to a few months or years of pain and suffer- 
ing. 



MISSIONS 181 

Who has ever been in Calcutta but has noticed the sallow 
complexion and languid action of the European residents? Even 
John Bull soon loses his floridity, biliary affections undermine his 
vitality, and "Bass" or "Alsop" cannot save him. An evening 
drive upon the Strand will exhibit a stream of carriages in which 
listless, languid ladies loll luxuriantly upon their lifeless liege 
lords, while at their feet their limpsy lovelings look longingly 
to them like tendrils for support in their little, lessening lease of 
life. They must be sent home to England to be invigorated. 

In 1837, being in Calcutta, I was applied to by Rev. Mr. 
Webb, a missionary to the Burmese, for a passage to America 
for his wife and two little boys. He was from Philadelphia and 
had come out to Rangoon with a young and amiable wife to con- 
vert the Burmese from their manner of worship to Christianity. 
The climate soon undermined Mrs. Webb's constitution, but 
she had lingered along, and had given birth to two puny inno- 
cents. At length, the physician told Mr. Webb that the only 
hope was to get her to sea as soon as possible. I felt deeply 
for her, and was grieved that I had no room to accommodate 
her. One of her children died before she left Calcutta. 

Now, if it was God's purpose that the religion of Jesus Christ 
should prevail throughout the world, would he not favour his de- 
voted servants and grant them tangible tokens of his approba- 
tion ? But we see that it is His pleasure that different religions or 
forms of worship should prevail in different portions of His 
earth, and He needs not man's interference. "All scripture is 
given by inspiration of God," and cannot God inspire a native 
heathen with heavenly fervor to declare His will, who should 
have more influence with his brethren than all the devoted mis- 
sionaries that have gone from Europe or America from St. Au- 
gustine down to the Rev. Elihu H. Doty? 

Were I arguing with a zealous friend of missions, he would 
probably remind me of the Sandwich Islands as an evidence of 
the good effects of missionary influences. But the semi-civiliza- 
tion of those islands has been caused by the intercourse of trade ; 
merchants and mechanics have settled there, and ships have re- 
sorted there to refresh and repair ; and the consequent inter- 
course has gradually ameliorated the condition of the inhab- 



i8 2 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

itants. But it may well be considered questionable whether their 
condition is bettered by the intercourse. Certain it is that the 
vilest disease in the whole catalogue, which was unknown among 
them when they were first visited by Captain Cook not a cen- 
tury since, is now the fell scourge that is fast exterminating the 
aborigines who do not now number one-fifth part of the popu- 
lation which they did when discovered. Missionaries have fol- 
lowed the merchants and whaleships, preaching a gospel, which 
they tell them is one of "peace on earth, good will to men." 
But to enforce the precept by example, the Kanaka sees, one sect 
of missionaries have intrigued with the government for the ex- 
pulsion of another sect, merely because their manner of worship- 
ing the same God is not exactly coincident with their own. 

While in Canton I met with some numbers of the "Chinese 
Repository," a magazine published under missionary auspices. 
In one of them is a history of Protestant missions to China, from 
which it appears that more than two hundred years ago, a Dutch 
commercial company established a trading post at Formosa, a 
large island lying contiguous to the coast of China. Missionaries 
followed, and great efforts were made for the spread of Chris- 
tianity, and at one time the church was said to be in a flourish- 
ing condition. But after about thirty years, the company aban- 
doned the island, and Christianity died out. Half of the mis- 
sionaries died. Others returned home sick, and the rest were 
driven away by the natives. The account goes on to say that "no 
traces of Christianity have ever been discovered there since, and 
it is melancholy to reflect how many valuable lives have been 
sacrificed in vain." Should the American government succeed 
in opening a direct trade with Japan, it will have great influence 
in spreading Christianity in the East. 

The popular missionary hymn of the celebrated Bishop Heber 
contains this stanza: 

"In vain with lavish kindness, 
The gifts of God are strown, 
The heathen in his blindness 
Bows down to wood and stone." 

The gifts of God lavishly strewn in vain ! Lavish is a very 
improper word, learned bishop. Immeasurably superior to this, 



MISSIONS 183 

in my estimation, is that Catholic hymn that, with reference to 
a future state, contains this stanza: 

"Christian and Pagan, Greek and Jew 
In one immortal throng we view ; 
Howe'er divided here below, 
One God, one worship there they know." 

If Bishop Heber meant to convey the idea that the heathen 
bow down to wood and stone, and worship inanimate idols as 
such, he is either a fool or a hypocrite. He knew very well that 
they only make use of images as the Catholics do paintings, as 
something tangible to fix the eye and the mind upon, while they 
worship the "Unknown God," and charity should have taught 
him to acknowledge the sincerity of their worship, which would 
put to shame the hollow profession of many a Christian con- 
gregation. 

If this essay should meet the eye of any bigoted zealot in mis- 
sions, he will probably exclaim, "What gross infidelity!" But, 
my fellow-travelers through life's journey, with reference to the 
self-existence of a Supreme Being, I am no infidel ; in love and 
veneration for His almighty and parental character, I yield not 
to mortal man. But I view Him as the wise, beneficent and 
merciful Father of all His creatures, and not as a God of ven- 
geance and partiality. Such a God I could not worship. I do 
not say but He will punish the offenses of His creatures in His 
own time and manner, but I consider the object of all punish- 
ment to be disciplinary and corrective, and not revengeful, and 
when that punishment shall have had its intended effect, and 
conscience shall have done its perfect work, then will 
the chastened and purified spirits of offending mortals be 
received into the great assembly of the redeemed. Then (adopt- 
ing a sentiment from Nature's sweetest poet) "will one un- 
bounded 'Love' encircle all," and there shall be universal joy in 
heaven. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

I have met with another disappointment, causing me a loss 
of one thousand dollars. When I chartered my vessel for Ma- 
nila, I fully expected to have two hundred and fifty deck passen- 
gers at eight dollars a head. But, having got my cargo all in, 
I laid the barque in a berth to receive my troupe of long tails, 
when I found that the consignees of an old brig that had been 
hauled up for a year were at work in opposition. They laid their 
old craft alongside and sent round circulars, offering to take pas- 
sengers two dollars lower than I would, so that if I would take 
them at five dollars they would take them at three. Conse- 
quently I only obtained about thirty who thought enough of 
their comfort to pay me my price. The old brig took two hun- 
dred and twenty-five crowded together on the deck of a vessel 
of one hundred and forty-five tons. Two hundred and fifty at 
eight dollars would be two thousand dollars, and as I sail the 
vessel on shares, one-half of the gross amount would have been 
for my individual benefit. All right in the end, perhaps ! 
I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, but it was snatched 
away early, and one of iron substituted, and disappointments 
have pursued me ever since. 

I bid adieu to Amoy on the 13th of May. It was calm and 
I drifted round Kolangsee and out by the southern side of the 
island. This passage is three miles wide, with plenty of water 
for the largest ships and a thousand men-of-war might be ac- 
commodated inside of the outer islands. Having towed and 
drifted out clear of all the islands, I caught a breeze, but as a 
matter of course it came directly ahead. After beating against 
it three days I arrived off the north end of Luconia, the island 
of which Manila is the chief commercial port, and is situated 
on the western side, about midway the island and three hundred 
and fifty miles from the north end. Here I fell in with a large 
American clipper ship, and had a race with her for the port of 
Manila. The winds continued ahead, with frequent squalls and 

184 



AN INCIDENT 185 

abundance of rain with thunder and lightning. Saw the same 
ship every day ; on some tacks she would pass to windward and 
again she would be some miles under my lea, and on the evening 
of the 25th we both arrived at the entrance of Manila Bay to- 
gether. 

The night threatened to be tempestuous, and the ship stood 
off shore, but experience has taught me the value of prompt 
action in securing a freight, and having got hold of the land- 
marks before night, I ran boldly in, and at sunrise anchored 
in Manila Roads. As soon as business opened I arranged with 
Messrs. Reissel and Sturgis for a freight of sugar and rice for 
New York at $12 a ton. 

The second day out from Amoy I noticed one among the 
passengers who seemed to be very sober and disconsolate, so 
different from the gaiety and frivolity of the rest that I was 
induced to try to ascertain the cause of his disquietude. I 
found that he had acquired a smattering of English and could 
read some (he had been a pupil in some mission school). He 
gave me to understand that he wanted to become a Christian, 
and I gave him a copy of the New Testament and told him it 
contained an account of the life and teachings of the author of 
Christianity. He took it thankfully and for several days I ob- 
served that he kept himself apart from his companions reading 
his book. 

One day he was seen lying at full length on the topgallant 
forecastle, with his head resting on the anchor and his Testament 
in his hand. Suddenly he rolled over and slipped headforemost 
into the sea. The ship's headway was stopped immediately and 
a boat despatched to his rescue, but he seemed to avoid being 
taken and swam away from the vessel, several times rising half 
his length out of the water, and turning upon us a horrible, 
ghastly look which I can never forget. When the boat had 
come within an oar's length he threw his whole length out of 
the water, turned a somersault and plunged headforemost be- 
neath the surface, and was not seen afterward. Poor fellow, 
he has already learned that God is no respecter of persons or 
nations, and if 



186 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

"On earth, according to his light, 
He aimed to practice what was right, 
God will admit his honest claim, 
Though he ne'er heard of Jesus' name." 

At 4 p. m. the ship made her appearance and proved to be 
the Golden Gate, Capt. Truman, from Hong Kong, in search 
of a freight. He was obliged to take ten dollars a ton for New 
York. Mr. Sturgis asked me if I did not know that ship was 
outside. "Certainly I did," said I, "but I did not consider it 
any part of my business to inform you of it." "All right," 
said he. 

Manila is the capital of Luconia and of the Philippine Is- 
lands; it is situated at the bottom of a deep bay or inland sea; 
on the west it opens into the China Sea. The Philippines be- 
long to Spain, and, like all Catholic cities, Manila is abundantly 
supplied with churches, convents and barracks, priests, padres, 
monks and military grandees, who monopolize the best quar- 
ters and the best of everything. 

It is now a festival season, and illuminations and torch-light 
processions are the order of the day, or rather the night. Every 
second or third evening a priestly parade takes place, escorted 
by the military, with a magnificent brass band, carrying about 
their sacred symbols and an image of the Madonna, surrounded 
with immense candles blazing in great profusion. 

The Virgin Mother is arrayed in the most costly silks, glit- 
tering with gold and precious stones, in exceedingly bad taste, 
in my opinion, for the mother of Jesus was a virgin in humble 
circumstances, and although of the stem of David, yet she lived 
in obscurity in Nazareth, and gave birth to her child in a stable 
and cradled him in a manger. The image is carried about on a 
palanquin by four priests, and is furnished with an abundance 
of small cakes. The churches are very large and have numer- 
ous compartments dedicated to different saints and adorned with 
their images, and hung round with paintings of Scripture 
scenes. 

To one coming from China, Manila seems a very fine place; 
it is well laid out, with beautiful drives or walks in the environs. 
My vessel being of light draft of water, I placed her in the 
inner harbour, in front of a hotel where I have taken up my 



MANILA 187 

residence, and once more I seem to be in a land of civilization. 
There is a little river which runs up to the eastward about 
twenty miles and connects with a small lake. 

June 10th. — Dined with Henry Sturgis, Esq., formerly of 
Boston, and after dinner rode out with him to take a look at 
the country. We went about five miles over a smooth avenue 
bordered with tamarind and mango trees. The latter is a beau- 
tiful tree, about twenty-five feet high, foliage of a dark green ; 
the fruit is delicious, kidney-shaped, thick rind, pulp bright yel- 
low, and next to the mangosteen it is considered the choicest 
fruit of the tropics. 

The country around Manila is low and level, well suited to 
the growth of rice, which is cultivated extensively. The native 
husbandmen have each a patch of ground of about half an acre, 
surrounded by a low embankment on which are growing rows 
of the stately and useful bamboo. Their cottages are built of 
bamboo poles, interwoven with thatch, and stand on bamboo 
piles about five feet from the ground. They have only one 
apartment, 10 to 15 feet square. Here the whole tribe, father, 
mother and children, who are as plenty as blackberries, all 
tumble in together in rainy weather, but at this season of the 
year they lie about anywhere under the trees. They appear to 
be contented and happy, and a king can be no more. They 
are very polite to strangers, but they are slothful and indolent, 
which is not strange, considering that their wants are few and 
easily supplied, and the climate is so enervating. 

The air was perfumed with jasmines and orange blossoms, 
and I enjoyed the ride much. Returning, we passed through 
between two lines of women and girls reaching more than a 
mile ; they were the operatives in a segar factory, returning 
home from their day's work. The making of segars is a Gov- 
ernment monopoly. The factory is an immense building, or 
rather range of buildings, where six thousand women are em- 
ployed in rolling up cheroots. Manila tobacco is next in quality 
to Havana, the one in the East, and the other the Queen of 
the West Indies, are both colonies of the effeminate kingdom 
of old Spain. 

The productions of the Philippines are numerous and val- 
uable: sugar, cotton, tobacco, rice, indigo, pearls, silk and 



188 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

hemp; the last being the chief article of export; it is the inner 
bark of a species of palm tree, which grows wild in all these 
islands, and is capable of being produced in unlimited quantity. 
If the islands belonged to England or America the export would 
soon be increased ten-fold, but the natives have no energy or 
inducement to produce any more than will supply their daily 
wants, and as for the Spaniards, they are a lazy, proud, austere, 
hammock-swinging, guitar thrumming, cock-fighting and bull- 
baiting race of humbugs. Even the steamboats that carry the 
garlic-eating dons about the islands came out here from New 
York, and are managed by Americans. 

The old City of Manila, or that part within the walls, is 
about one-third of a mile in extent, situated on the south side 
of the small river, and is occupied by the government officials 
and the military. The business city is on the other side of the 
creek, and goes by the name of San Fernando. The white pop- 
ulation is supposed to be about 400,000. The masses are of 
the great Malay family, and are generally of the Mohammedan 
religion. Destructive earthquakes are frequent. 

In front of my window is an esplanade, and every evening a 
squadron of troops are paraded here for exercise and review ; 
they are all natives, but are officered by Spaniards. A most ex- 
cellent band, composed of fifty brass instruments, gives me a 
fine serenade; a hot day is thus delightfully terminated. The 
old brig that cut me out of two thousand dollars passage money 
has at last arrived, twenty-five days' passage; the poor Chi- 
nese have suffered very much from destitution and exposure 
on the passage. 

June 29th. — Yesterday there was a military parade and pro- 
cession in the fortress, which I went over with Capt. F. to see. 
It was really a magnificent spectacle. In the procession was 
the Governor, surrounded with an escort of hussars richly 
caparisoned. As "His Excellenza" approached the spectators 
doffed their chapeaux, and stood uncovered till he had passed. 
Like a couple of green Yankees we had neglected this mark of 
deference till we were reminded of it by half a dozen halberds 
thrust toward us and a ferocious lancer exclaimed in mixed 
Spanish, French and English, "Restu, vile Yankee, what for 
non deplacer your cot tarn hat?" 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

The difficulties and annoyances in the way of doing business 
in Manila are greater even than in Russia. Two revenue guards 
are quartered on board the ship, and not the smallest article of 
merchandise, or stores, or even the captain's baggage, can be 
transported from the ship to shore or from shore to ship with- 
out a special permit, and to obtain this you have to dance at- 
tendance at the "poco poco" Custom House sometimes for hours. 
Having at length obtained the important document, you must 
next trudge away across the river to the Intendiente's quarters, 
whose office is within the fortress. This all-sufficient grandee 
will very likely be smoking a bunch of papellitos with Don 
Antonio Pedres Sebastian Ippolito Juan Fernando Carlos Gar- 
cia, and of course you can expect no attention while a don with 
such a name as that remains. At last, after keeping you stand- 
ing for another hour, he may condescend to notice that you are 
waiting and scribble his autograph and dismiss you with 
"Buenos dios, Senor." 

You must then carry the permit to the Captain of the Port 
for his signature, then take it thus signed and countersigned 
on board ; and if the guard is in good humour you may get 
your trunk without a minute examination. You now imagine 
that you are all right, but not yet, for now you must carry your 
trunk to the guardship, and the officer on duty there will be very 
likely to put you to the annoyance and vexation of a scrutiniz- 
ing search to see that you have no small articles secreted among 
your clothing, unless you "butter his fingers" ; that is, give him 
a dollar. 

Confound all custom houses, say I. When will the prin- 
ciples of free trade become recognized, and the only legitimate 
way of raising the revenues of nations, a direct taxation upon 
all the property of the country, be resorted to? To impose a 
tax or duty on imports and exports is a violation of the rights 

189 



190 



A PIONEER VOYAGE 



of man; it operates unequally, fostering some branches of in- 
dustry at the expense of others or the whole. 

The tarifnte will tell me that a duty on imports is necessary 
for the protection and encouragement of domestic manufac- 
tures. I am strongly in favor of encouraging domestic insti- 
tutions, whether the aristocratic establishments of millionaires 
or the humble bench and lapstone of the cobbler, and the forge 
and anvil of the blacksmith, but let it be done by a surplus fund 
raised by direct taxation, or in our country by the proceeds 
of the public lands, to be distributed among manufacturers in 
the same way that fishing bounties now are among fishermen. 

1 may also be told the old story that it would be difficult, if 
not impossible, to collect a direct tax. I do not see why. At 
home the revenue of states, counties and towns is raised by 
taxation, and is generally collected by a single individual, who 
would be very glad to have his commissions increased by the 
collection of a United States tax, which would not amount to 

2 cents per $100. But by the present system one-fourth of 
the whole amount of the revenue is absorbed in the collection. 

No, sell your costly custom houses, warehouses and the 
whole establishment. Send the whole tribe of custom house 
menials, collectors, naval officers, appraisers, surveyors and in- 
spectors, who fancy they are the masters and not the servants 
of the public, to the right about, to earn an honest livelihood as 
producers. As for revenue cutters, let them be appropriated as 
coast guards, to watch for and relieve ships in distress. Come 
directly to the dictates of reason and common sense, and thus 
put an end to the great bone of contention in presidential elec- 
tions, the unprincipled and demoralizing scramble for office. 

But politics have no business in this family book, so away 
with them; only I say, do not make the poor man, who, by 
obeying the laws of nature and the command of God, has bur- 
dened himself with a family, whose expenses, increased by this 
abominable system, have absorbed the fruits of his industry, pay 
ten or twelve times as much into the public treasury as the 
wealthy bachelor, who, failing to fulfil the purpose of his crea- 
tion, has by that means become rich. 

At Manila I shipped a new complement of seamen and a 



ANGIER 191 

second mate, which is the fifth time my crew have been changed 
since I left San Francisco. Seamen are an anomalous race, 
"a short life and a merry one," is their motto, "and when our 
money is all gone we'll go to sea for more," the burden of their 
song. But this is all right, for if seamen were not of this reck- 
less temperament they would quit a life so full of hardship and 
abuse, and commerce would die out for want of the brute force 
to handle the ships. 

I took my departure from Manila on the 226. of June. The 
boys, in weighing the anchors, lightened their labour by the 
cheering song of "Homeward Bound," and to me it was indeed 
inspiring. The southwest monsoon blowing up the China Sea 
made it necessary for me to take the eastern passages again, 
first figuring out through the passes between the Philippine Is- 
lands, then across the Sea of Mindoro, through the Bosselan 
Straits, over the Sooloo Sea and then through the Straits of 
Macassar, when I took the southeast trade winds and had a 
good run across the Java Sea. I crossed the Bay of Batavia 
inside the Thousand Islands in order to have a look at the 
city, but I only saw the spars of the shipping. The city was 
too distant to be seen without running out of my course. 

On the 1 6th of July I stopped at the small port of Angier, 
situated on the north coast of the Island of Java in the Straits 
of Sunda. This is the great resort of all ships passing in or 
out the China Sea to replenish their stock of fresh fuel and wa- 
ter. When a ship appears in the offing a fleet of bumboats put 
off loaded with poultry, vegetables and fruit. They generally 
demand extravagant prices for what can be bought very low 
on shore. Aware of this, I declined trading with them, and 
went on shore and called upon the Governor, who was a tall, 
square shouldered Dutchman with a tremendous figure head. 
He is a naval officer. He received me very politely, and brought 
out his flask of the genuine Schiedam Schnapps and a supply of 
fine-flavored Manila cheroots, and with genuine Dutch hospi- 
tality he kept me two hours listening to his long yarns about 
tigers, snakes, alligators and the rhinoceros. He sent for a 
trader and gave him orders to fill my memorandum with the 



i 92 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

best, and to bring the account to him, which he did, and I have 
no doubt I saved fifty per cent, by taking this course. 

When I was ready to come away I found that the bum- 
boats had returned, and some two dozen of the boatmen had 
surrounded my boat in a threatening manner, and anticipating 
trouble with them, I returned to the Governor's house for pro- 
tection. He mounted his sword and taking a large cowhide 
he went back to the boat with me. The boatmen knew what 
they were to expect, and when they saw his long nose and red 
face they made themselves scarce in quick time. 

The Governor kindly offered to escort me off to my vessel 
in his own barge, and cordially bid me good-bye and wished me 
a good passage home. 

July 17th. — Got under way from the anchorage at Angier. 
The wind was light and variable and weather very fine. The 
south end of Sumatra and the northwest end of Java are about 
twenty miles apart, and the passage between is called the Straits 
of Sunda. Sumatra is the largest of the Sunda islands, sepa- 
rated from the peninsula of Malacca by the straits of the same 
name, which, entering from the Bay of Bengal, wind around 
the southern extreme of India, and passing Singapore, connect 
with the China Sea. Its western coasts extend from Lat. 5 deg. 
north to 5 deg. south in a southeasterly direction, exhibiting a 
chain of mountains which, commencing at either extremity, 
gradually increase in elevation to Mount Ophir in the center, 
fourteen thousand feet. This place being directly under the 
Equator, of course there is no difference in the length of the 
days and nights the year round, the sun always rising and set- 
ting at 6 o'clock. 

Its productions are rice, cotton, coffee and spices, cam- 
phor and other gums, and pepper, which offered a strong temp- 
tation to Americans to engage in its commerce, and Yankee 
cupidity soon invented a means of increasing the profits of the 
trade. The simple minded heathen natives were cheated by 
Christian false weights, until at last the film dropped from the 
eyes of the deluded creatures, and (as is natural) they deter- 
mined upon avenging themselves. The ship Friendship of 
Salem was lying at "Qualla Battoo," and one day when the cap- 



THE INDIAN OCEAN 193 

tain, supercargo and chief mate were on shore, with most of the 
crew, weighing pepper, several boats full of natives put off to 
the ship, overpowered the force on board, after massacring 
the officer in charge, and slipped the cables and ran the ship on 
shore. For this "outrageous" affair the Government of a coun- 
try whose motto is "Justitia Hat," sent a powerful frigate to 
obtain redress by indiscriminate chastisement. The frigate an- 
chored on the coast, and sent her cutters in the night time, well 
armed, and destroyed a few primitive villages of bamboo huts, 
which deed, on the frigate's return, was emblazoned as a glo- 
rious action, a heroic attack and a great victory! A hundred- 
pounder to a pig sty!! 

I bought in Angier two quite young monkeys and let them 
climb the rigging and masts as they liked. I had been sailing 
but a few hours when one of them lost his hold and fell over- 
board. The other stood on the rail looking for a moment 
and then leaped after his companion, and after him leaped a 
young Malay sailor. The wind was light and the sea smooth, 
and I brought the barque to. The little jackos struck out man- 
fashion after the ship, and when the sailor boy reached them 
each one climbed on one of his shoulders, and as he came swim- 
ming back the seamen set up a shout of three cheers, in which 
I could not refrain from joining. I then filled away, set all the 
light sails, and, as the sun went down, we emerged, as it were, 
from the world's tunnel into the vast Indian Ocean — 

The ever-rolling Indian Ocean, 

Whose waves, though now so calmly lain, 

Anon will rise in wild commotion, 
When roars the dreadful hurricane. 

July 1 8th. — I have now a clear sea before me, and my course 
is from hence west southerly six thousand miles, to the Cape 
of Good Hope. It will indeed be to me a cape of good hope 
when I am permitted to pass it in safety, for then a bee line 
northwest seven thousand miles more will bring me to my na- 
tive land. 

Blow, favouring gales, 

Swell out my sails, 



i 94 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

And speed my way, 
Through every day, 
Till safe once more 
I tread the shore 
Of thee, my own, 
My native land. 

The southeast trade winds are blowing fresh and every sail 
is doing its best. Wherever I have been with my little barque 
I have often been asked what is the meaning of her name. 
People who, one would suppose from their general intelligence, 
would have often come across the term, have been enlightened 
when I have told them that it was the Latin, Italian and Span- 
ish term for rainbow. "Iris" is the name of the heathen god- 
dess of colours, granddaughter of Oceanus. She is represented 
as a beautiful virgin, with wings, and dressed in a robe of all 
colours. "Arco" is the Latin for arch or bow. And now while 
this "Rainbow" is flitting along let us take a retrospective view 
of the past. 

How little do we know what is before us in life, and how 
well it is that we know so little. When I left my family in 
September, 1848, to make a voyage to Liverpool in the Ocean 
Queen, how could I have imagined that I was to be kept away 
four years, and what a career of fortune and misfortune was 
to be my lot! When I left Liverpool for New Orleans nothing 
was known there of the extraordinary state of things in Amer- 
ica; but on my arrival at New Orleans I found the whole 
country in a state of feverish excitement, on account of the dis- 
covery of gold in California. The long-sought "El Dorado" 
had been found. Who can fail to perceive in this the direct 
agency of an overruling Providence? The treasures of that 
country had lain hidden since the creation in reserve for the 
time when the increasing commerce of the world should require 
an addition to its circulating medium. 

For three hundred and fifty years that region had been in the 
possession of an imbecile nation, and in order to develop its 
resources we see first the annexation of Texas to an enlight- 
ened and energetic nation. This leads to our war with Mexico. 
A series of battles successful beyond precedent concludes with 



IN RETROSPECTION 195 

a peace with that country, one condition of which peace is the 
cession of California. No sooner does that take place than its 
new owners discover that it is a land of gold, and thousands 
and tens of thousands of adventurous spirits fly thither from 
all quarters, and by every possible route, and a vast and val- 
uable country is at once raised from oblivion to add a new and 
golden star to the glorious constellation of freedom. 

Among the multitude my fate leads me to California, where 
I go to work energetically and in a legitimate way to acquire 
a share of its riches. At first I am successful, as much so as 
my ambition could anticipate, and I began to think that the 
bright star of my destiny had at last arisen, to shed its cheer- 
ing influence on my declining years. But it had set again in 
darkness and gloom ere it had arisen above the influence of 
malignant refraction. One cruel blow upsets me and sets me 
adrift, a lonely wanderer, in the most busy spot on earth, poor, 
sick and prostrated. 

In the darkest hour of that gloomy season, when it seemed 
to me that I was an outcast, every one too much absorbed in 
getting money to care a straw for the unfortunate, there was 
one gentleman, on whom I had no claims, who held out the 
hand of friendship and kindly volunteered to assist me in find- 
ing my way home, in a way to avoid expense and perhaps to 
earn something on the route, but I am doomed to circumnavi- 
gate the globe, and another year is to pass before I reach at 
last my home. 

And here I cannot but remark that but few men could have 
borne up under the troubles that I encountered, which none but 
myself and my God can ever know ; and when I look back and 
reflect how many to my knowledge, with scarce a semblance of 
my troubles, gave up in despair, became dissipated and died a 
miserable death, I thank God I was not permitted to become a 
drunkard. 

My career has since called me to visit the Sandwich Islands, 
to traverse the Pacific Ocean and the China Sea, to touch at 
Singapore, from thence to retrace my way back to China, to 
spend two months in the Celestial Empire, to make a call at 
Manila, from thence to thread my way down through the intri- 



196 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

cate passages among the Eastern Islands, surrounded by dan- 
gers of all kinds, and at length to emerge, as it were, out of 
the focus of the eastern hemisphere into the open sea, safe and 
in good health. 

How can I be sufficiently thankful to God for my preserva- 
tion? Heavenly Father! let me never hereafter repine at my lot, 
but trusting to Thy guardian care, pursue the course marked 
out for me with patience and perseverance, believing that "Thou 
doest all things well." 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

The Indian Ocean is that vast sheet of water bounded on 
the north and east by Asia and the Sunda Isles, south by the Ant- 
arctic Circle, west by the Continent of Africa and the south At- 
lantic. Its depth from north to south is four thousand miles, 
and its breadth from east to west is upwards of six thousand. 
In general the weather is fine and settled, but at certain periods 
it is subject to the most terrific hurricanes. Across its greatest 
breadth lies my route. 

Tempests, avaunt! your furious spite so dire is, 
'Twould play the deuce with th' little Arco Iris. 

July 22. — A mild and pleasant day. At 9 a. m. discovered 
a ship in the northwest, with the American ensign at the peak, 
steering so as to cut us off in our course. At 11 she was made 
out to be a whale ship. I laid by and she lowered a whale boat, 
and the captain came on board the Arco Iris. As soon as he 
landed on my deck he requested me to fill away and stand on, 
saying that he had come to spend the day, and had directed his 
mate to follow in my wake. The ship was the "Popmanet of 
Sippican;" — how poetical. 

These whalers are the greatest bores afloat; they spend so 
many months at sea, amongst whales and blubber, that all they 
can talk about is in relation to their profession. This gentle- 
man was a real chatterbox, and during his visit he entertained 
me with a lecture on whaling. He had pursued his gigantic 
game from the frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis' 
Straits through the equinoctial heats of the tropics to the frozen 
serpent of the Antarctic, had been to Behring Straits and Ocean- 
ica, but did not know the name of the President. 
He talked of finback and spermaceti, of whalebone and 
blubber, of harpoons, lances and spears, of boats and lines and 
oars, — "There she blows and now she flounces," etc., but when I 
spoke of the Mexican War, he was as uninterested as though I 

197 



i 9 S A PIONEER VOYAGE 

was rehearsing a chapter in Epicurus. At dinner I gave him 
roast mutton and pigeon pie, which reminded him of porpoise 
meat and Cape pigeons, and I was enlightened upon the ex- 
quisite flavor of these marine delicacies. Away up at the top- 
gallant crosstrees of his ship men were perched in crows' nests 
looking out for whales. 

The Arco Iris is the tightest vessel that I ever had charge of. 
She sails better than the average of ships, and steers beautifully, 
but she is so lively during a gale that at times I can neither stand, 
sit, or lie still ; at such times I am obliged to turn in, and drawing 
myself up in the shape of the figure 4, with my back braced 
against the ship's side, and my knees against the front of the 
berth, worry out the gale. 

The southeast trade grows faint and the barometer has set- 
tled three lines. Hurried in all light sails and reduced the storm 
sails to the smallest compass. Soon streaks of lightning were 
darting in zigzag tracks across the threatening tempest, and 
Heaven's artillery was shaking all creation. The squall ad- 
vanced rapidly and in a few minutes "the windows of Heaven 
were opened," and a cataract came down that settled the barque 
apparently a foot. A flash! and the crack of a pistol and I was 
partially blinded, and half -suffocated with a sulphurous stench. 
We had been struck! A flash of lightning seized the maintop- 
gallant mast, and it being straight grained, tore out a quarter 
section from the trucks to the heel, but it left no trace below the 
crosstrees. Probably the electric fluid seized hold of the chain 
topsail tie and was by that conducted into the sea. When a ship 
is struck by lightning, there is none of that thundering uproar 
reverberating in the distance, it is simply the snapping of a per- 
cussion cap and all is over. The commotion passed away to the 
southeast against the regular trade; in twenty minutes the sun 
appeared again, the breeze came back, out went the reefs, the 
light sails spread their wings, and away we went, wondering 
what could cause such a phenomenon as a meteor tempest ad- 
vancing with such velocity against a regular trade wind and 
settled fine weather. 



A DELIGHTFUL DAY 199 

When tossed about on the lonely deep, 
The wind or light or fiercely blowing, 

While careless shipmates sweetly sleep, 

My thoughts towards home are often flowing. 

I think upon my native land, 

And social circles peace enjoying, 
While death lurks round on every hand 

And all his arts he seems employing. 

'Twixt me and him, there's but a plank; 

If that should start by the ship's straining, 
My life's not worth the turn of a crank, 

But there's no use of my complaining. 

A wild, erratic thunderbolt 

Which shoots so oft in the Indian Ocean 

May straight direct its liquid molt 

'Gainst my poor head — a fearful notion. 

Perhaps a raging furious fire 

May chance some day the ship envelop, 

Or chance an angry tempest dire 

My years' and days' account may tell up. 

What foolish thoughts ! The plank will hold, 
The bolt shoot wide, the fire lie dormant, 

And as I range the seas so bold, 

A fig for aught I'll care the storm on't. 

In Providence I still will trust, 

Where'er I may be called to roam, 
Though tempests o'er my head may burst, 

They always end in froth and foam. 

A Delightful Day. 

August 1, 1852. — Latitude 19 degrees south, Longitude 70 de- 
grees east. Last night the sun set clear, and as he laved his 
burning limbs, surrounded by a radiance of inexpressible mag- 
nificence, in the broad Indian Ocean, the moon, exactly at her 



2 oo A PIONEER VOYAGE 

full, just rising from her watery couch, blushed modestly, as if 
ashamed to be seen in her undress. She had but just fully and 
fairly arisen, when she hid herself behind a friendly intervening 
trade wind cloud, such a cloud as is never seen, except within 
the tropics. Soon its upper edge became illuminated, first red, 
then orange, golden, and then silver, and Madam Luna emerged, 
arrayed in full splendor, prepared to reign queen of the loveliest 
of nights, seeming to say, "Now, look at me and take your sur- 
feit." I did look at her and surfeit, occasionally wandering to 
catch the first glimpses of her sparkling attendants as one after 
another they twinkled into vision. First Venus, her right-hand 
maiden, appeared far down the west, and just without the burn- 
ing zodiacal embrace of King Sol ; next Jupiter peering down 
from the zenith, then Sirius, Orion and Aldebaran, the beautiful 
Southern Cross, Markab and Eridanus, until at length the whole 
celestial vault became — 

"The spangled Heavens, a shining frame." 

The air was soft and balmy, there was no sea, but the long 
undulating swell, peculiar to this ocean, seemed like the heav- 
ing throes of material nature's bosom. The night was too lovely 
to think of sleep, and for hours I sat, watching the constellations 
and contemplating their sublime organization, till at last in won- 
der and amazement at the great, the awful, the inconceivable 
majesty of the Supreme Being, my soul subdued by a sense of its 
own insignificance, breathed silently the only prayer a mortal 
could appropriately offer. Father! Thy ways are just and right, 
Thy Providence is over all and Thou canst do no wrong. Grant 
that at all times, and under all circumstances, I may be able to 
say with resignation, Thy holy will be done. 

But everything must have an end, and at length Apollo hav- 
ing illuminated more than half a world since last he set with us, 
began to shoot his rays of fire above the eastern horizon, warn- 
ing night's empress that, having had her display, 'twas time for 
her to retire, for he was coming to show what he could do. His 
preliminary influence became broader and more fervid, until at 
length the center of a glowing arch of burnished gold, the glori- 
ous god of day arose in the full splendor of his ineffable majesty. 
The moon stood still to gaze, then left the field abashed. 



A DELIGHTFUL DAY 2 oi 

It is Sunday, and the seamen having given the Arco Iris her 
morning's ablution, have nothing more to do throughout the day, 
and are listlessly lounging at their end of the ship, some mend- 
ing up their rips, others smoking their Calumet of peace, while 
one is reading to the rest. It is nature's holiday, and my deck is 
like a farmyard — geese, ducks, hens and pigeons, sheep, turtle, 
pigs and monkeys, are all let loose to frolic and gambol ; besides, 
I have in my cabin a pair of beautiful green pigeons, and a brace 
of gently cooing turtle doves from Java, and a number of cages 
of the sprightly little Java sparrows are hanging round about; 
every creature is in the full enjoyment of this delightful day. 

The trades are blowing fresh and steady, the sails set fairly 
to the breeze, seem like a band of brothers exerting their united 
energy in urging the ship forward on her course towards home. 
The helmsman, stiff and steady at his post, has his watchful eye 
alternating from sail to compass; the steward, the only one on 
board who has anything to do, is busy with his daily avocations ; 
the officer on duty is patrolling the decks in measured tread, 
never deviating a barleycorn in the length of his steps, and every 
turn embellished with a Sandwich Island shuffle. And where 
am I? Here on my quarter-deck, an autocrat. 

Towards noon a speck appeared in the horizon on the weather 
bow; it grew momentarily taller and broader, and in about an 
hour one of the large, new modeled American clipper ships 
dashed by upon her way to India. There cannot be a more en- 
nobling sight than a well appointed ship in the middle of an 
ocean. She is the acme of human skill, and the beautiful appli- 
ances to assist the navigator in threading his path across a track- 
less ocean, seem like the scintillations from Omniscience, illum- 
inating the mind of man at the moment when an enlarging 
world required finger posts to point the way to a distant conti- 
nent. 

But I am wandering from my subject — A Delightful Day. 
Seated under an awning, enjoying the luxury, I took my favorite 
author, and, turning to his beautiful account of the creation, 
never did I realize its beauties so fully before. 



2 o2 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

"First in the east, the glorious lamp was seen, 
Regent of day", — "and all th' horizon round 
Invested with bright rays", — "less bright the moon 
With thousand, thousand lesser lights appeared, 
Spangling the hemisphere." 

He closes his glowing description with the following apos- 
trophe to Heaven : 

"Open, ye everlasting gates, they sung, 
Open, ye Heavens, your living doors; let in 
The great Creator from His work returned, 
His six days' work — a world!" 

Some one (I think Doctor Young) has said: "An undevout 
astronomer is mad." To this I would add that he who could 
pass such a splendid night, followed by such a delightful day, 
without finding his thoughts rising through nature up to na- 
ture's God, has not mind enough to be a madman. 

August 7. — At early daylight my steward called me, saying 
that he could see land. As Mauritius (Isle o' France), the near- 
est land, is three hundred miles distant, I paid no attention to 
his report, but when I came out on deck an hour afterwards, he 
still persisted in saying that he could see land. I told him to 
point to it, and he at once stretched out his hand in the direction 
of the Isle o' France. Now, I should not have recorded this triv- 
ial circumstance if it did not remind me of a strange matter 
that took place at this same Isle o' France some years since. I 
copy from the "London Nautical Magazine," a standard work 
devoted to nautical and marine science: 

"A Frenchman by the name of Botteneau, who had charge 
of the signal station at Port Louis, acquired the faculty of dis- 
covering ships in the atmosphere approaching the island when 
they were yet hundreds of miles distant, and used often to re- 
port their approach for two or three days before they made their 
appearance to other eyes. At first his reports were treated with 
ridicule, but the constant verification of his predictions aroused 
the attention of the government and a committee were appointed 
to investigate the matter, who were obliged to report favorably 



AFRICA 203 

for Botteneau. At one time he notified the government that a 
fleet of nine ships were advancing, though yet two hundred miles 
off. This caused much consternation, as an invasion was at 
that time anticipated, but the ships did not arrive, which gave 
occasion for renewed ridicule to Botteneau's enemies, although 
he asserted that they had gone on past the island. In due time 
it became known that a fleet of nine men-of-war had arrived at 
Bombay, which passed the Isle o' France at the time Botteneau 
said that he saw them. All cavilers were now silenced, and Bot- 
teneau went home to France, with the view of soliciting a pen- 
sion on condition of his explaining his discovery, which he 
called 'Nauscopia,' and which he asserted that he could teach 
to others. But he died before a negotiation could be had, and 
his secret died with him." 

Now, my steward is an illiterate Chinese and knowing no 
more about the Mauritius than the man in the moon, and his in- 
sisting so positively that he could see land, seems to indicate 
that he had a nauscopic revelation a la Botteneau. I passed a 
hundred miles to the southward of the island. 

After getting to the westward of Madagascar I encountered 
a severe gale from southwest, which brought us down to close 
reefs. It continued three days, and drove me in on the eastern 
coast of Africa in Latitude 25 degrees south. Here the coast 
is sandy and barren near the shore, but a short distance inland 
it rises in hummocks crowned with dark brown shrubbery, and 
in the distance the mountains of Caffraria can be seen. There 
were no signs of any settlement, no boats along the shore, no 
habitations, no smoke rising, and everything appeared desolate. 

This part of Africa is inhabited by Caffres, Bushmen and 
Hottentots, who live a nomadic life without houses, not cultivat- 
ing the soil, but depending for subsistence on game obtained by 
the bow and arrow, and when that fails, on locusts, with which 
this region abounds. There is but little difference in these races, 
the Hottentots being nearer to the colony at Cape Town, are 
slightly elevated above the other tribes. They live in villages 
or a cluster of cone-shaped huts covered with mats, with only 
one opening which serves as door, window and chimney. They 
are abominably filthy, but are praised by travelers for kindness 



20 4 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

and hospitality, as well as integrity, chastity and mutual affection. 
They are low in stature, of a dark, swarthy complexion, woolly 
hair, thick lips and high cheek bones. 

The Bushmen are diminutive, seldom growing to more than 
four feet high, skin dark yellow ; they seem a step between a 
baboon and humanity. The Caffres are a race distinguished 
from the Bushmen and Hottentots, as well as from the negroes, 
by a larger facial angle, the head more like a European, hair 
stiff and frizzly, brown complexion, high nose, and sparkling 
eyes. They are supposed to be descended from the Arabians, 
still retaining many Arab words in their dialect. They are Mo- 
hammedans, and practice circumcision. They live in hordes, each 
one having its own chief, and the chieftainship is hereditary. 
They are a vigorous race of simple habits, they live principally 
on curdled milk, and their only drink is water. They are of a 
quiet, peaceable disposition, but when roused to war, they dis- 
play great courage and skill in the use of arms, which are the 
bow and arrow, shield and club. Before they attack an enemy 
they send heralds to warn them of their approach. The all- 
grasping English, issuing from Cape Town, have stolen a large 
portion of their territory, and this primitive, kind and, till lately, 
happy people seem destined to extinction. 

After the gale subsided I had a moderate spell of east winds, 
and coasted along the south east quarter of Africa keeping from 
five to ten miles from the land. I found a strong current setting 
along the coast to the southwest, proving the correctness of the 
theory that in the rotation of the earth from west to east, the 
oceans hang back, and accumulate on the eastern sides of conti- 
nents. Thus the Indian Ocean becomes piled up hereabouts and 
here the only escape is around the Cape of Good Hope and into 
the Southern Atlantic. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

On the 28th of August, I was favored with another gale 
from the southwest, and lay plunging into an awful sea for forty- 
eight hours. These westerly gales are frequent in this region. 
Her Majesty's Battleship Centaur once encountered a hurricane 
here, and during the night the ship was plunging fearfully, when 
some of the guns broke loose, the huge ship's frame groaned, 
she sprung a leak and was in danger of foundering. The chap- 
lain was so much alarmed that he could not sleep, and spent 
the night on deck, holding on to the fiferail. About midnight 
the boatswain happening to pass by, the chaplain asked him what 
he thought of it. "Think, parson," said the rough son of Nep- 
tune, "why, I think if the gale don't take off, we'll all be in 
Heaven afore morning." The man of God in great trepidation 
exclaimed, "Oh, my good fellow, don't say that, let us hope and 
pray for better things." During the same gale, a sailor who was 
a Papist was observed on his knees praying earnestly to the 
Virgin Mary. He promised her, if she would spare him, to get 
safe on shore, he would place at her shrine a candle as big as 
the mainmast. One of his shipmates overhearing him, took 
him to task for his extravagance and asked him where he was 
to get so large a candle. "Hush, Bill, you fool, you, hush ; ye see, 
lad, I must promise her ladyship well now, but when I come 
ashore I'll put her off with a six in the pound." 

On the first day of September, I succeeded in turning the 
Cape of Good Hope. When Vasco Da Gama in the fifteenth 
century first doubled this extremity of Africa, he called it "El 
Cabo de todas tormentos" — cape of all torments, probably from 
having experienced a succession of tempests for which this re- 
gion is famous, and which his small barque was but poorly fitted 
to encounter. The land hereabouts is mountainous. Some part 
of it resembles in formation a huge lion recumbent ; one elevation 
is called the lion's head, another the lion's rump. The lion's 
head is sometimes enveloped in a white cloud, with its lower 

205 



2 o6 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

edge well defined and perfectly level; this the people of Cape 
Town call "The Devil's Table Cloth," as it is a sure prognostic 
of tempestuous weather. Whenever his Satanic Majesty be- 
gins to spread his cloth the port captain signalizes to ships ap- 
proaching to keep off, and to those in the road to send down 
yards, house topgallant masts and prepare for the worst. 

In 1846 I stopped in Cape Town with the ship Aragon on a 
voyage to Calcutta, to land a portion of her cargo. I remained 
there ten days. The harbor is an open roadstead in the form 
of a semi-circle facing to the northwest. The town presents a 
pleasing appearance from the ship; in the eastern section is a 
beautiful drive and promenade, with rows of trees all standing 
at an inclination of thirty degrees to the northeast, the effect of 
the frequent southwest gales. 

The inhabitants of Cape Town are Dutch (the descendants 
of the old colonists) and English (whom the Dutch look upon 
as intruders). There is but little intercourse between the two 
races and that little is not of a friendly nature. Also there are 
negroes, Hottentots and dogs, the latter by far the most numer- 
ous. "Buffon" might here have enlarged his genealogical table 
of the canine species, and Linnaeus would have found tails turn- 
ing to the right or left, straight tails or no tail at all. Mastiffs, 
bulldogs, spaniels, terriers, poodles and hounds of every variety 
throng the streets of Cape Town. Here also the anthropologist 
may trace out the gradations of the biped race, ascending from 
the monkey up through the ape, the baboon, the man-o'-the 
woods, the Bushman, the Caffre, the Hottentot, the full-blown 
Congo, the Moor, and the Andalusian, to the Teuton and the 
Anglo-Saxon, — and reformers may here find a field for extending 
their philanthropy down backward through the same gradations. 

Fruit and vegetables are abundant and very fine, the beef 
and mutton are excellent, particularly the latter, and of a Cape 
Town sheep the choicest morsel is the tail. Cape Town is a free 
port. The celebrated Constantia wine is obtained at Cape Town ; 
it is the produce of a small farm about ten miles from town. 
Most strangers make a point of paying a visit to the old Dutch 
proprietor. I made one of a party to ride out to Constantia, 
the name of the vineyard. There are about one hundred acres, 



ST. HELENA 207 

all in vines. The adjoining estates do not grow the same species 
of grape. The old Hollander took much interest in showing us 
through his vaults and proving the taste of the several vin- 
tages, which he said ran back for twenty years. He has no oc- 
casion to export his wines for market, all of it being taken by 
customers on the spot. We each purchased a small cask at $4.00 
a gallon, and the old Boer wished us "God speed." 

After getting to the westward of the Cape of Good Hope, I 
had light airs from the southwest for three days, then the south- 
east trades set in moderately, with the sea smooth as glass. As 
my course is now northwest, we are running straight before it 
with all the studdingsails set on both sides. This is a dull, 
monotonous way of sailing — no occasion to start a rope on board 
for weeks. As I go to bed, so I get up again — no variety; a 
gale would be acceptable by way of change. 

On the morning of the 17th of September a dim, darkish 
bank is discovered in the northwest, directly ahead. As we 
crawl along in our snail-like pace it grows more and more. It 
is the island of St. Helena. At noon we can trace its rock- 
bound, perpendicular angles, and at 4 p. m. we turned the north- 
east point and opened out the valley of James Town ; at 5 p. m. 
dropped anchor in thirty fathoms of water. The American Con- 
sul was alongside in a jiffy and offered me a seat in his barge; 
went on shore and engaged a room in the London Hotel, had a 
fine supper of mutton chops and fried eggs, and retired to a 
clean bed. Oh ! what a relief from my prison life on board ! 
I am heart-sick with looking at the same set of Jack Nastyfaces 
for three weary months, and my mate is a disgusting rowdy with 
whom I cannot be familiar. 

St. Helena, the prison house of Napoleon Buonaparte, the 
greatest scourge of modern times ! Many people censure the 
English Government for confining him to this spot. But I think 
they were right in doing so. The peace of the world required 
that he should be placed beyond the possibility of doing any 
more harm. He who, to gratify his own insatiable avarice, had 
sacrificed the lives of millions, and made other millions miser- 
able, and had treacherously broken his faith by returning from 
Elba to set the world again in arms, ought to have expected 



2 o8 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

no better treatment, and this island offered the best guarantee 
for his safekeeping consistent with his personal comfort. Buona- 
parte was a great man and a talented general, and had he taken 
Washington for his model, he would have shone forth as a 
bright particular star in the galaxy of the world's heroes, but 
I look upon him in the same light that I do an earthquake or a 
pestilence — as an instrument in the hands of an overruling Prov- 
idence, to scourge the world, for a wise though, to us, inscrutable 
purpose. 

The island of St. Helena lies in the South Atlantic Ocean 
near the middle, being twelve hundred miles from the nearest 
land, which is the coast of Africa. Like all other islands stand- 
ing out in the ocean at a considerable distance from any con- 
tinent, it is of volcanic origin, and shows evident marks of an 
eruption far beyond the reach of history. The hills, which rise 
abruptly to the height of twelve or fifteen hundred feet, are com- 
posed entirely of lava; the different strata are everywhere seen 
at different degrees of inclination. In fact, evidences of a gen- 
eral eruption are everywhere manifest, else how are we to ac- 
count for those vast deposits of marine substances found on 
elevated ranges in the interior of a continent, or those immense 
regions of coal of vegetable formation lying many fathoms down 
beneath the surface? May not the chaotic mass from which this 
earth was formed, according to the Mosaic history, have been the 
result of a grand explosion, whirling about "without form and 
void" until it gradually acquired its present form by the all- 
powerful force of gravitation, and cooled into its present shape, 
and the progenitors of its present inhabitants formed for the 
occasion ? We know that the earth contains within itself the ele- 
ments of such an eruption and its volcanoes are its grand safety 
valves. It is a vast ball of combustible materials encrusted with 
a covering of earth and water and liable at any moment to an- 
other explosion whenever it may please the Almighty Architect 
to apply the match. May it not be the purpose of Eternal Wis- 
dom to withhold the match till a population too redundant to 
find sustenance may require a new formation? 

The valleys are fertile, and although within the tropics, yet 
the climate is temperate and the fruits of both the tropics and 



NAPOLEON 209 

temperate zones grow in great abundance. Immediately in the 
rear of the London hotel an abrupt hill rises at an inclination 
of twenty degrees from the perpendicular to the height of thir- 
teen hundred feet; it is ascended by a series of eighteen hun- 
dred steps cut in the lava. At the summit is the signal station, 
to notify the approach of ships, and here the morning and even- 
ing gun is let off to salute the god of day on his first appear- 
ance and departure. 

On the 18th dined with Wm. Carroll, Esq., American Con- 
sul. At his table were some half a dozen whaling captains who 
had called in here to refresh, and seemed in no hurry to leave. 
Of course, the conversation was all about finbacks and sperma- 
ceti, harpoons, lances, bouts and blubber. Mr. Carroll keeps an 
open house for these gentlemen, and they are not slow to avail 
themselves of his kindness, but he compensates himself in the 
exorbitant prices he charges for their supplies. He charged 
me $25 for a barrel of musty flour. 

Fifteen years ago I stopped at this place on my return voy- 
age from Calcutta, having with me half a dozen young gentle- 
men, or rather rich men's sons, as passengers. We rode out 
to Longwood, the residence of the great Exile. It is a plateau 
upon elevated ground at the northeast end of the island. He 
occupied the farmhouse, although a very comfortable palace 
was built for him, but he refused to live in it, and died in a 
room which is now used as a granary, and is exceedingly filthy. 
The walls and even the floor are completely covered with auto- 
graphs, principally French, with not a few American. 

In returning we called at the dell where lay the mortal re- 
mains of the great man. It is a peaceful nook, about two rods 
are enclosed in a wooden railing, and the grave is enclosed in a 
neat iron cemetery. A brown stone without inscription covers 
the grave, and four weeping willows hang over it in solemn 
silence. An invalid soldier, one of Napoleon's own, was privi- 
leged to guard this sacred spot. He was as garrulous as any 
other Frenchman, and for the some thousandth time he recited 
Austerlitz and Waterloo. My young chaps were very desirous 
of obtaining some twigs from the willows, but the old guards- 
man expressed much horror at the sacrilege, and said that it 



210 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

would cost him the loss of his situation to allow these sacred 
trees to be mutilated. He was deaf to all entreaties till I whis- 
pered to one of them to butter his fingers. He slyly slipped a 
dollar into the keeper's hand, and suddenly he had occasion to 
go to his lodge, and they each got as many twigs as they 
wished. 

When I returned to my vessel I found the crew in a state 
of mutiny. The mate is one of your marine tyrants who de- 
light in abusing sailors. I have repeatedly cautioned him in 
this matter ; a portion of my crew are Malays, who never forget 
or forgive a blow. They will watch months and years for an 
opportunity for revenge. While I was in Manila a country ship 
officered by Englishmen and manned by Malays, trading from 
Bombay to Canton, anchored in a calm on the coast of Siam 
for a night, and while the captain and officers, except one on 
watch, were asleep the crew, who had been savagely treated, 
massacred them all and abandoned the ship. In order to avoid 
the risk of a like fate I thought best to discharge my Malays 
and ship Englishmen. I ought to have discharged the mate. 

My rest was disturbed last night by a Dutchman rushing into 
my cabin at about n o'clock, exclaiming, "Where ish te cap- 
tain? Mine Got, vere ish te captain?" Apprehending something 
serious I was not long in turning out, and found one of my 
German passengers in great tribulation. There was a barrel of 
chlorine kept near the transom ; it was used for the purpose of 
purification; it had the appearance and somewhat the flavour 
of gin. The Dutchman had long eyed it with a wistful look, 
supposing it to be his favorite Schiedam, and last evening he sat 
up till the other passengers had retired, when he stealthily drew 
off half a mugfull, and hastily drank it, fearing detection. A 
woman, who was lying awake, saw it, and exclaimed, "What 
are you doing? Why, that is a deadly poison." Mynheer rushed 
up the ladder, and broke into my cabin like a madman. "Ah, 
mine teer captain," said he, "I'm pisent, I shall be ted, pimeby, 
tirectly pefore mornin'." I thought it best to favor his delu- 
sion for future effect, so I expressed apprehension and turned 
him over to the surgeon, who poured into Mynheer's not un- 
willing mouth his nauseous emetics, his cathartics, diarrhoetics 



ASCENSION 211 

and saporifics, and purged the patient into a comatose forget- 
fulness of his alarm. After about ten hours' stupor, Mynheer 
"Gottlieb Pfeffelsbergeffer" came out all right, cured of his long- 
ing for Schiedam. 

Started again on the 19th, fanned along before the wind, 
and on the 25th passed the latitude of Ascension, another vol- 
canic island similar to St. Helena, belonging to England, now 
used as a penal settlement. It abounds with goats and turtle. 
The English East India ships resort here on their homeward voy- 
age for a supply of these. A few years since a Calcutta trader 
took on board a large number of turtle, and one very large fel- 
low was kept alive till the ship reached the mouth of the Eng- 
lish Channel, when the captain marked the shell on the back 
by cutting the name of his ship, the date and place, and the 
British Arms, and set the old chap adrift. On his next 
voyage he stopped again at Ascension, and took in a fresh sup- 
ply of turtle, and among them found one marked as before 
stated. Instinct, nature's pilot, had taught him the way back to 
Ascension. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

vJn uie afternoon of the 2nd of October I crossed the Equa- 
tor for the fifth time since I left home. At 3 h. 30 m. I was 
exactly equidistant from the two poles of the earth. Wonder 
how large these poles are. They must be poles of some magni- 
tude to sustain this great ball. 

In reflecting upon the polar regions, some curious thoughts 
are suggested. Let us suppose it possible for an individual to 
reach the North Pole and stand exactly on the pivot. He would 
then, after an interval of darkness of six months' duration, see 
a bright speck appear in the horizon and immediately disappear, 
but whether east or west he could not tell. After an interval 
it would appear again, larger and continue longer. The speck 
would continue to rise as it wound round from his left to his 
right, and in about forty hours' of our time he would see the 
full orb of day, continually increasing in elevation, till it reached 
the altitude of 25 deg. 28 min. There the sun would remain 
a length of time unknown to our pivot man, and then begin to 
descend slowly at first, but more rapidly as it approached the 
horizon, finally sinking again, and leaving our solitary fixture in 
another night of half a year, though he would take no note of 
time, for the source of time would be always on the meridian, 
and it would be either a perpetual noon or unchanging mid- 
night. Ask him to point in the direction of London, he could 
only say that it is south; then ask him how Washington bears, 
and again he answers south; now tell him to point south, it is 
everywhere, and he can only point to his feet. If there is any 
wind there it must come from the south, for he knows no other 
point except the north, which is directly over his head. While 
the inhabitants of the equatorial regions are travelling to the 
eastward at the rate of nearly one thousand miles an hour, he 
remains stationary, only turning once round in twenty-four 
hours. 

If the vital power of the air depends upon its being contin- 

212 



FORCES OF NATURE 213 

ually in motion, it seems probable that here is the great labora- 
tory where the oxygen and hydrogen are mixed and circulated 
by the centrifugal force of the earth's diurnal revolution, and 
that if it were possible to reach the pole no being could exist 
there. Here we see the wisdom of the Creator in enclosing this 
interesting pivot in an impenetrable barrier of ice, so that all 
the daring attempts of adventurous navigators to approach it 
have end in "Cui bono." 

The floating mountains of ice met with between Newfound- 
land and Europe are generally thought to be portions of this eter- 
nal barrier, the accumulation of ages, broken off by their own 
vast weight, and floating down yearly to warmer regions. It 
seems to me that this theory is not satisfactory. If they have 
been centuries in accumulating, why is it that they are met 
with only in spring and summer and not in autumn? If it 
takes ages to congeal such masses, when such a number of them 
as are sometimes seen at sea, leave the place of their formation, 
other ages would be required for a new formation, but they are 
seen yearly. Besides, where is the region where ice can be found 
three hundred fathom thick, within the vicinity of land? 

It seems to me more reasonable that they are the product 
of the preceding season, a field of snow and frozen rain in au- 
tumn in Davis Strait and the Greenland Sea, sweeping down 
south with the polar current, continually increased in height 
with alternate layers of snow and rain by the constant storms 
of the succeeding winter, until by the time they reach the coast of 
Labrador they become mountains hundreds of feet above the sea. 
Afterward, as they reach the parallel of Newfoundland, they 
begin to crumble and crack, the strata of snow and ice separate, 
the latter slide off in glaciers, covering all the intervening sea 
with field ice, until finally the offshoot from the Gulf Stream 
makes a finish of them. 

Several years since, on a voyage to England, I became en- 
closed among a large number of icebergs, and was five days in 
getting clear of the field ice, on which were a great number of 
seals in a state of torpidity. I shot one, and he was hauled 
on board by a noose thrown over his head by a man in the 
chains. I passed within twenty fathoms of one monster berg 



2i 4 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

that towered high above the ship's mast, and sent its spurs out 
under the keel many fathoms. My ship ran at the rate of five 
miles an hour till sunset, when the berg was still plainly seen 
from deck, proving that it must have been five hundred feet 
high. I once saw the process of dissolution. The sun's rays 
and the warm sea had dissolved the cement, and one of these 
monsters crumbled and fell to pieces in an indescribable uproar. 
But my theory is not altogether satisfactory. May it not be 
that the earth revolves upon an axis of solid ice? 

Many years ago, before the ice king began to ship his com- 
modity to the East and the West Indies, an enterprising ship- 
master chartered an old lumber brig at Castine and proceeded 
to the ice region to load her for the West Indies. He lashed 
the vessel to an iceberg and began to load, but while cutting 
away the mountain inclined and its spurs came up under the 
keel and nearly capsized his brig, and set her to 1 leaking, so 
that he abandoned his voyage and returned to Castine, where he 
attempted to evade the charter by contending that the vessel was 
not seaworthy. Icebergs are entirely fresh. 

September 27th. — This morning the sun rose in an atmos- 
phere of vermilion and the windward side of my sails and rig- 
ging look as if painted with brick dust, piles of which may be 
swept up on the deck after short intervals. It is an impalpable 
powder wafted from the Coast of Africa fifteen hundred miles 
distant by the trade winds. 

October 7th. — I am now in the North Atlantic. I was six 
days working my way across the region of calms and squalls, 
and on the evening of the 8th I got the first glimpse of the North 
Star, a very welcome sight. The southern constellation answer- 
ing to the North Polar Bear is composed of four stars of the 
second magnitude, so placed as to form a cross, the shaft point- 
ing directly to the south pole. It is a very beautiful constella- 
tion, affording the mariner a convenient time indicator. 

Star of the North, thy ray I greet. 

Thou shin'st at home, on kindred dear; 
That kindred soon I hope to meet, 

My way-worn weary soul to cheer. 



NORTH ATLANTIC 215 

Hope ! Boon of Heaven, what were life, 
If thou were't stricken from its roll? 

Cold doubt and turmoil, toil and strife, 
Of man's dark voyage would be the whole. 

Full fifty thousand miles I've sailed 

Since last I parted from my home. 
My plans for fortune all have failed, 

But still I'll hope for time to come. 

Great God ! in wisdom Thou dost rule, 

Oh, may I ne'er that fact forget, 
But taught in resignation's school, 

Await my time, and struggle yet. 

Sunday, October 10th. — My sea stock of fresh meat has now 
dwindled down to two pigs, half a dozen ducks, and one lone 
goose, or rather gander. This last is a curious old chap. He 
goes marching about the deck as stately as a lieutenant, and as 
stiff as a midshipman. At meal times he is sure to place him- 
self in the doorway of my dining room, and stretching up his 
long neck he fixes his gaze on my table as steadily as a deacon 
on communion day, occasionally reminding me by his single 
"Yarnk" that he is waiting for the crumbs. It is my practice 
to have the ship's bell struck only at the end of every two hours, 
and my gander has lately acquired the habit of joining in con- 
cert ; for instance, when four bells are struck, let him be in what 
part of the ship he may, by day or by night, he is sure to strike 
in immediately in concert, with his "Yarnk, yarnk — yarnk, 
yarnk." He must be a lineal descendant from the goose told of 
in Addison's "Spectator," that used to act the part of watchman 
in London. 

October 15th. — Latitude 21 deg. N., Longitude 47 deg. W., 
saw a lot of floating lumber and shingles, probably some lumber 
drogher from the State of Maine has recently passed here and 
lost his deckload. These gentlemen do not use chronometers, 
and to guard against falling to leeward of their port in running 
for a West India island they steer so as to strike the trade winds 
several degrees of longitude to the eastward of the islands, and 



216 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

getting into the latitude of the island, as they are bound to, they 
square away and run down sometimes in a week. 

Chronometers are now in almost universal use. It is a watch 
so constructed as to run with perfect accuracy. It is compared 
with an astronomical clock when leaving port, and is never 
suffered to run down, and the hands are never touched. Of 
course, it always indicates the time at the place at which it was 
set. But comparing it at any moment with the time obtained 
by the sun, and turning the difference into degrees at the rate 
of fifteen degrees to one hour of time, we find exactly how much 
we are eastward or westward of our port. For instance, sup- 
pose on leaving Boston my chronometer is set in unison with 
Mr. Bond's or Mr. Willard's standard clock, then after being at 
sea a few days I find that the sun shows twelve o'clock, and 
looking at the chronometer I find it marks only eleven o'clock, 
I know instantly that I am 15 degrees east of Boston, and that 
it will take the sun just one hour to reach the meridian of Bos- 
ton. Or on leaving Liverpool, I find it is one o'clock by the 
chronometer, when the sun comes on the meridian at the ship, 
then I know I am fifteen degrees west of Liverpool, and that 
the sun passed the meridian there one hour previously. The 
English Government have given two hundred thousand dollars 
in bonus to watchmakers to stimulate them in perfecting chro- 
nometry. 

Nothing material occurred for the remainder of the voyage, 
had a fair run through the northeast trades and passed the 
Bermuda Isles on the 19th of October. 

The Bermuda Isles belong, of course, to England. Great 
and small they number by hundreds, and on the north and east 
sides they are surrounded by reefs extending from two to four 
leagues from the shore. They lie in the latitude of Charleston, 
S. C, and distant about eight hundred miles. The climate is 
mild and uniform, there is never any frost, and vegetation is 
constantly advancing towards maturity, and the trees are always 
in verdure, the leaves only falling to make way for another 
generation, and two crops of the cereals are gathered in one 
year. It is a remarkably healthy region and a fine place for 
consumptives to linger a few years longer. 



THE BERMUDA ISLES 217 

Bermuda is chiefly valuable to the mother country as a naval 
rendezvous with Halifax in the north and Nassau in the south. 
They form a cordon threatening to the United States, but the 
time is fast approaching when American ingenuity will set Mr. 
Bull with all his cordons and fleets at defiance, and if he ven- 
tures upon a war with us he will not get out of it without losing 
his colonies on our side of the Atlantic. 

Just after losing sight of Bermuda I fell in with an English 
brig from Porto Rico bound to these islands. She had been 
forty-three days at sea, ten of which she had been cruising about 
in this latitude in search of her place of destination, and was 
in distress for want of water and provisions. I supplied her 
wants and gave the captain his course and distance, when he 
pulled away without so much as saying "I thank ye." I have 
sometimes heard it said that it was the duty of the shipmaster 
to supply the wants of a brother seaman without charge, but 
I do not see the propriety of this. Certainly he must be a mon- 
ster who would make a higgling bargain in such a case, but as 
he has no right to give away the property of his owners, it is 
the duty of the one relieved to offer a fair compensation, or, 
if he has not the means at hand, to give a receipt and draft 
upon his owners or agent. 

Three years since, on a return voyage from Europe, a sea 
had flooded my cabin and spoiled the bread, and on the bank 
of Newfoundland I fell in with a British ship bound to Quebec. 
I sent my mate on board of her for a supply, and gave him 
three sovereigns to pay for it. He brought back a sack of 
flinty navy bread, but no change; he said the captain took the 
three pounds for payment, but I cannot think so meanly of a 
brother shipmaster. I think it more likely that the mate thought 
it too good a chance to let slip, and pocketed the gold. 

20th, 2 1st and 22nd of October. — Strong northwest gales, 
during which I could make no progress, and never did a head 
wind seem so tedious and irksome. After this one day's calm, 
and on the 24th the wind set in light from the eastward. On 
the 27th the temperature of the sea rose suddenly to 80 deg. 
Fahrenheit, a sure indication that we were in the Gulf Stream. 
This is one of the phenomena of the ocean. If you take a ter- 



2 i8 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

restrial globe and trace out the configuration of the north and 
south Atlantic Oceans, you will see that the Equator crosses the 
northern part of the empire of Brazil, and that the coast trends 
in a northwesterly direction. Now I have before remarked 
that in the revolution of the earth from west to east the water 
near the equator, where the velocity is greatest (nearly a thou- 
sand miles an hour), hangs back, and becomes swelled above the 
level near the coast of Brazil, and finds its escape by a con- 
stant flow to the northwest, between the continent and the Carib- 
bee Islands, until at last it meets a final barrier in the Bay of 
Mexico. Now examine the globe again, and you will perceive 
that the opening between Cuba, the Bahama Islands and the 
coast of Florida affords the only outlet for the surplus waters; 
through this passage they rush with such a velocity that the 
impetus acquired continues till having passed the eastern projec- 
tion of North America, they spread and become equalized. The 
water I am now sailing in has but recently left the Bay of Mex- 
ico, and has not had time enough to get cooled off. 

But after sailing about seventy-five miles in this hot water 
we find the temperature suddenly falling to 60 deg., a certain 
indication that I had crossed the stream and was approaching 
the land. On the 28th water at 50 deg. Began to fall in with 
coasting vessels by the hundred. 

On the 29th struck soundings in fifty fathoms on the coast 
of New Jersey; at 8 p. m. steered northwest during the night, 
and at daylight one of the sylph-like pilot boats of New York 
ran under our lee and inquired if I wanted a pilot. "Of course 
I do," said I. "Why, it ain't the old man after all," I heard him 
say to the boatkeeper. When he came on board he said I re- 
sembled his father, who is also a pilot, so much; that when he 
first looked at me with his glass he thought that I was his own 
father had got the start of him. 

It came on foggy before we could get in, and we came to 
anchor outside of Sandy Hook, where we lay till the 1st of No- 
vember, when we hove up the anchor and beat up the beautiful 
bay of New York. Certainly it seemed to me the most splendid 
sheet of water on earth.. 

About five miles short of the city the tide turned to run ebb, 



NATIVE LAND 219 

and impatient of the delay of beating, I called a steam tug along- 
side, and at 3 p. m. she laid the barque alongside a pier in the 
East River, whereupon I unbent the sails, cleared up decks, and 
discharged all hands. 

Several times during my cruise around the world I have 
come within an ace of a fortune, and now I learn of another 
great mis-fortune. 

I found my friend Mr. Plummer in New York. From him 
I learned that soon after I left San Francisco the market ran 
short of rice. The great number of Chinamen there had eaten 
themselves out of their staple fodder, and rice rose to thirty 
cents a pound. He despatched several letters by clipper ships 
in the hope of catching me in Singapore or China, with instruc- 
tions to purchase a cargo of rice and return to San Francisco. 
I could have laid in a cargo at Manila at one cent a pound. But 
none of the letters ever came to hand ! The Arco Iris would 
easily carry three hundred tons, and I annex an estimate of what 
would have been the result: 

300 tons of rice at $20 $ 6,000 

Commissions, insurance and exchange 10 per cent 600 

$ 6,600 

Sales of 300 tons at 25 cents per pound $150,000 

Charges at San Francisco 10 per cent 15,000 

$135,000 
Invoice and charges 6,600 

Net profit $128,400 

One-half to Messrs. Plummer & Crosby $ 64,200 

One-half to George Coffin 64,200 



$128,400 



And now here alone in my little cabin, at 9 p. m. Monday, 
November 1, 1852, I close this journal by saying that on calling 
at my consignees, Messrs. Goodhue & Co., I was favoured with 



220 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

letters from home, conveying the gratifying intelligence that my 
family were all well. My eldest son had grown to be a man, 
and by his upright and manly deportment had acquired a high 
standing in the community. My daughter is a young lady of 
whom any father might well feel proud, and my younger chil- 
dren bid fair to emulate their elders. For these blessings I am 
mainly indebted to their inestimable mother, under whose care 
they have grown and are fast growing to maturity. 

Father in Heaven, accept my praise, 
And in Thy mercy hear my prayer 
Now offered up through Thy dear son: 
What good or ill attends my days 
With resignation may I bear, 
And say, Thy holy will be done! 




ADDENDA. 

I devote the remaining pages of this book to copying some 
of my contributions to "The Emigrant." 

PATIENCE. 

We can all of us preach patience to others, but to practice 
this virtue ourselves is quite another and far more difficult 
matter, as was elucidated in the case of a Scotch divine, who, 
having received a plentiful crop of tithes during the week, was 
observed to be remarkably complacent on the ensuing Sabbath. 
He took his text from the book of Job, strongly encouraging 
his hearers to be patient under all their trials, and declaring that 
for the future he was determined to be resigned and submit 
patiently, let what might befall him, citing the patriarch Job 
as the personification of patience. 

His wife, good woman, had prepared an extraordinary din- 
ner for the occasion, and for once he did not find fault with the 
roasting of the joint or the flavour of the pudding. She praised 
his discourse. "Why, yes," said he, "I think I have given the 
boors a good dose this time and I hope they will profit by it, 
but, my dear, would not this be a good time to broach No. 

149?" 

Overjoyed to see him in such good humour, she seized a can 
and flew to the cellar, but soon came back, looking disconsolate 
and wretched. "What, what's the matter?" said the good man. 
"Oh ! such a sad event has happened," she replied. "Tell me, 
my dear, what is it, has anything happened to any of my parish- 
ioners? If so, I hope they will remember my sermon and be 
patient; for my part, if it relates to me, I am resolved to bear 
it with Christian resignation. But, my dear, where is the beer 
all this while?" "That's just it," said the wife with fearful ap- 
prehension, "the barrel is bursted and the contents are all about 
the cellar." The parson fretted, raved and swore, his poor wife 
endeavoring to console him, bidding him remember his sermon, 

221 



22 2 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

and think of the patience of Job. "Job! Job! don't talk to me 
about Job, ye hussie. Job never had a barrel of such beer." 



THE BITER BIT ; OR, DOVER JACK AND THE JEW. 

Jack Bobstay was a jolly tar, 

Just home returned from out the war, 

With pockets full of money, 
And off to London he did stroll, 
And took with him his faithful Poll, — 

She was as sweet as honey. 

Now Jack, he had an eye ahead, 

He knew his purse, though now well fed, 

Would dwindle in the city. 
So as along the road he went, 
He hit on this experiment, 

Which shows that he was witty. 

At every tavern where they stayed 
To eat and drink or sleep, he paid 

The landlord's fare twice over, 
It being first well understood 
That when returning on that road, 

As he came back to Dover, 

He should not pay again, but twirl 
His hat upon his stick, and curl 

His finger in his hair, sir, 
At which Sir Boniface might know 
His customer and let him go 

Quite free of further fare, sir. 

Arrived in town, a crafty Jew 
Espied our hero ; well he knew 

He was an unplucked sailor. 
So quick he brought him to his shop, 
Where clothes and trinkets he did slop, 

He was a peddling tailor. 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO "THE EMIGRANT" 223 

Jack wanted this, Poll wanted that; 
The Jew he was a wily brat, 

And quick he filched their siller, 
Which soon convinced our hero Jack 
'Twas time for him to make sail back, 

Up helm and mind his tiller. 

Now Jew he thought that he had more 
Of his hard earnings laid in store, 

His fingers now were greasy; 
He had found Jack so very free 
In spending gold he'd no idea 

To let him off so easy, 

So took a seat in the same coach, 
And soon the crafty dog did broach 

The subject of Jack's pension. 
"Why, yes," quoth Jack, "I have a claim 
Upon the Government to name 

But 'tis hardly worth the mention." 

At the first tavern where they dined, 
Jew paid his fare, surprised to find 

Jack did not pay a "prog," sir, 
But twirled his hat upon his stick, 
At which the landlord answered quick, 

"All right, my jolly dog, sir." 

When supper came Jack twirled his hat. 
The Jew, still more amazed, thought, "What 

The devil's in this fellow? 
About that stick must be some charm. 
To smoke it out can be no harm, 

I'll smoke him till he's yellow." 

"Dear sir," said he, "pray tell me how, 
While I pay cash, it is that you 

Do never pay a stiver, 
But round about your walking stick 
You twirl your hat, a clever trick, 

Which I should like to cipher." 



224 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

Jack thought a moment ere he spoke, 
"By the mast, 'twould be a cunning joke 

To shave this Jewish shaver. 
Egad! I'll do it, so here she goes — 
Dear sir," said he, "there's no one knows 

The value of my staver. 

"Whene'er I twirl, as you have seen, 
My hat upon that staff so keen, 

My wants are all supplied, sir. 
'Twas given me by Fiji's king, 
Whate'er I want 'twill surely bring 

Directly to my side, sir." 

Jew seized at once the gilded bait, 
To own that stick he scarce could wait 

To drive a Jewish trade, sir, 
So offered Jack a hundred pounds, 
Was quite astonished when he found 

Jack spurned his offer made, sir. 

"A hundred pound ! You stingy Jew, 
D'ye think I'm such a simpleton that you 

Should get my charm for nothing? 
No! higgle not, you stupid dunce, 
But say a thousand pound at once, 

Or stop your Jewish mouthing." 

Jew paid Jack down his thousand pound 
And took the staff. But soon he found 

He'd caught a real live tartar. 
Upon the stick he placed his hat, 
First twirled it this way, twirled it that, 

Exciting naught but laughter. 

He bought a coach, and twirled his hat, 
At which the man who sold cried, "What 

The devil do you mean, sir?" 
"Why, that's the pay," quoth anxious Jew ; 
"The pay, you simpleton? do you 

Think I'm so very green, sir?" 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO "THE EMIGRANT" 225 

Jew found the stick had lost its charm, 
At which he grew exceeding warm 

With Israelitish passion. 
He swore by Moses and old Nick 
Upon Jack's pate he'd break that stick, 

To cheat him in that fashion. 

So straight to Jack he posted off. 
"You've sheated me mid your tarn staff, 

Come, give me back my monish." 
Jack placed his thumb upon his nose, 
And straight his fingers out he throws, 

Saying, "No, you don't, my honish. 

"You barefaced, swindling, paltry Jew, 
Whate'er I told you is most true, 

There's virtue in that wand, sir; 
But though such charm it doth possess, 
There's one thing more I must confess, 

'Twill only suit my hand, sir. 

"Besides you shark-toothed Israelite, 
You thought at me you'd have a bite, 

You have but little wit, sir. 
When stick you bought, you silly brat, 
You also should have bought my hat. 

You are The Biter bit/ sir." 

I came across the substance of the foregoing in an old story 
book, and turned it into rhyme for the amusement of my un- 
easy passengers. 



PRECISION. 

Precision is an excellent quality, when it is not too pre- 
cise, but extremes in all things are unnatural, and should be 
carefully avoided. 

Perhaps of all classes of men our nautical friends are the 
most precise; their profession requires that they should be nice 



226 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

in their observations and exact in their calculations, working out 
their problems with much precision, but I do not see the use 
of their descending to the fractional parts of a mile or seconds 
in fixing their position at sea. I have often seen in newspapers 
and magazines a shipmaster's report of some new discovery, in 
which he has thought it important to be particular as to the 
seconds, and sometimes even to the thirds or tenths of a sec- 
ond, in its position in latitude and longitude. Now this I con- 
sider being a little too precise, and smacks strongly of pedantry. 
For instance, suppose we should fall in with some hitherto un- 
discovered reef or island, and our captain, in reporting his dis- 
covery, should place it in latitude 25 ° 51' 27" and longitude 
113 32' 49", would any other navigator who might chance to 
fall in with it agree as to the number of seconds or would our 
captain himself, on another occasion, be able to fix it exactly in 
the same position? I fancy not. The subject reminds me of 
an anecdote that once took place in my own experience. 

Passing along Duke street in Liverpool, in company with 
a nautical friend, we came across a porter house, and stepped in 
for a draft of old England's choicest beverage. We happened 
to fall in with a party of English shipmasters of our acquaint- 
ance, who very cordially invited us to partake of their good 
cheer. The conversation fell upon the perfection of nautical 
instruments, and the precision of nautical calculations. One gen- 
tleman boasted that his chronometer performed so accurately 
that he would venture to run by her to a quarter of a mile on 
any coast, and in any weather. I looked at my friend and 
thought he was going to say, "Thank fortune I am not your 
underwriter." Another gentleman said he had a pocket watch 
that was perfection itself. He once set her by the astronomical 
clock at the Greenwich observatory, made a voyage to Australia 
and round the world, and on his return, on comparing her with 
the same timekeeper, he found she had gained "not quite a 
quarter of a second" I looked again at my friend and fancied 
his mouth was puckered up, as all other mouths are, when their 
owners are about to say, "Fudge." A third gentleman said that 
"only let him see the sun and moon or the moon and stars and 
he cared not a fig for all their timepieces, for he could take and 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO "THE EMIGRANT" 227 

work a lunar observation that should place him within ten rods 
of his true position." 

"Very precise," said my friend, "but I can beat even that. 
I was once lying entirely becalmed in the North Atlantic. My 
ship's length lay due east and west; the sun and moon were 
at a convenient distance, and I placed myself at the knightheads, 
and took a set of distances. I then went aft, and at the sternpost 
I took another set; on working them out the first set placed me 
in longitude 45 ° 23' 17 ".4, and the second set made the longi- 
tude 45 23' 1 8 ".9. Reducing the difference to feet and inches, 
I found it to be 135 feet o,f inches, and referring to my ship's 
register, this proved to be her exact length." 

The chronometer man retired, he of the pocket watch ab- 
squatulated, the exact lunarian had some urgent business to at- 
tend to on board his ship, and my friend and I enjoyed a hearty 
laugh over our mugs. 



ANECDOTES. 

A jolly sailor, having saved enough of his hard earnings, 
bought a cottage and garden in the country, and retired from 
the sea to enjoy it. But he was much annoyed by a yelping cur 
belonging to one of his neighbours ; as often as he drove him 
away he was sure to be soon back. At last Jack caught him 
and chopped off his tail. Some days after an acquaintance, 
passing by, asked him if the dog continued to annoy him. "Faith 
no," says Jack, "he hasn't been here for a week, for the last 
time he was here I cut his rudder away, and blow me if I think 
he'll find his way here any more, now he's got nothing to steer 
with." 



A lady who of this world's wealth was rife, 

Had with a crabbed husband passed her life. 

A maid she had, and this maid had a beau, 

And asked her lady mistress if she would let her go. 



228 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

Her mistress told her plainly, that rather than to marry, 

She'd better leap the falls of fearful Niagara. 

The maid replied at once, "I'd leap the falls, odds rot 'em, 

As sure as I'm alive, and never mind a jot 'em, 

If I thought I'd find below there a husband at the bottom." 



Sailors on shore have generally a passion for horses, but a 
sailor on horseback is like a deacon in a ball-room. Jack Ratline 
had just been paid off in London, after a long voyage, and stroll- 
ing along the Strand he fell in with an empty omnibus standing 
waiting for customers. So feeling an inclination for a ride, he 
bargained with the driver for his coach, paying for all the seats 
on condition that the coachman should drive on without waiting 
for any more passengers. Jack took his place on the top of the 
omnibus. Just as the driver mounted his box a party of ladies 
and gentlemen came along, going the same route. One of the 
gentlemen threw open the door and was about to help the ladies 
in when the driver forbade it, saying that his seats were all en- 
gaged. "How can you say that, you son of a whip, when there 
is no one in the coach?" Jack, hearing the altercation, looked 
over the railing and inquired what all the row was about. On 
learning the state of the case, he exclaimed, "D — it, coachee, if 
that's all you may stow away the landlubbers down in the hold 
there, but blow me if a soul of 'em shall come on deck here." 
As the coach was driving along Jack kept continually giving his 
driver his orders. "Port your helm," "pull on the starboard 
fore brace," "set up the mizzen backstay," "ease her when she 
pitches," much to the amusement of the passers-by. 

At the end of the route Jack descended from his airy posi- 
tion, and then took a fancy to a ride on horseback. When the 
horse was brought out Jack, full of frolic, sprang into the saddle 
stern foremost, that is, with his face towards the horse's tail. 
At this the bystanders set up a great shout. Jack sat looking 
marlin spikes and capstan bars at them till they were tired jeer- 
ing at him, and then exclaimed, "What the h — are you laughing 
at, ye pack of loblolly boys? How the d — do you know which 
way I am bound?" 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO "THE EMIGRANT" 229 

Admiral Campbell, for some special act of bravery, was to 
be knighted. When a courtier appeared with a summons for 
him to appear in the king's presence to receive his ribbon or 
garter he was very much averse to the matter, and begged to be 
excused, as he said he had no taste for knighthood. The cour- 
tier, thinking to overcome his scruples, replied, "But, sir, per- 
haps Mrs. Campbell would like it." "Then let the king knight 
her," was the brave seaman's blunt reply. 



Lord Nelson once ordered the commander of a frigate to 
attack a certain position in Spain. The captain ventured to 
remonstrate, saying that he considered the post unattackable. 

"Sir," said the hero of Trafalgar, "I do not understand you, 
that word is not English." 



PADDY'S FIRST CRUISE AT SEA. 

A raw son of Erin, happening to be in London, was seized 
by a press gang and hurried on board a frigate just ready for 
sea. When the new recruits were mustered to be stationed, and 
it came Paddy's turn to be examined he was asked what his 
name was. "And it's me own name ye'd be afther getting, is 
it?" said Pat, "faith then ye'll be puzzled to get it, for Mike 
Sullivan don't tell his name to every spalpeen that asks for it." 

At this one of the lieutenants struck him with his sword. 
Mike seized the gentlemanly swab by the shoulders and raising 
him above his head he whirled him round like his own threshing 
flail. At this the mariners surrounded him with fixed bayonets. 
"Arrah now, my hinnies, stand back, or by Jasus I'll spit the 
varmint on your skewers." Paddy then set him down on deck 
and applying his brogan sent him sprawling on deck, saying, 
"Get out of that, ye divil's skin." 

Mike was court-martialed and sentenced to receive a dozen 
lashes at the gangway. "Faith," says Mike, "but I've not taste 
for it anyhow, but if yer Honer says so I suppose it's as good 
as done." He took his punishment without flinching, only ex- 
claiming when it was over, "Och, by the Powers." 



230 A PIONEER VOYAGE 

He was then turned among the waisters, and one day he 
was set to hauling in a long line that had been towing over- 
board to take out the kinks. He hauled away for some time, 
muttering, "By Jasus, but it's as long as to-day and to-morrow." 
Still he kept pulling away, saying, "Bad luck to the arm or the 
leg it will lave me at all, at all." Still he hauled away for 
some time longer, when he stopped, and looking up to the officer 
of the deck he exclaimed, "Plaze, yer Honer, but I'm blowed if 
I don't think some spalpeen of a shark has snapped off the ither 
eend on't, sure." 



DOUSE THE GLIM. 

Lieutenant Martingale was a college educated gentleman, and 
had come forth from his "Alma Mater" a pedant, and he carried 
his pedantry into his every-day matters. Whenever he had oc- 
casion to give any orders on board ship, it was always in high- 
flown language. If he sent any seaman forward, instead of the 
laconic "Lay fo'ard there, lads," it would be "Betake yourselves 
to the anterior" ; or if he ordered a man aloft he would tell 
him to "ascend to the superior elevation" instead of the common 
order, "lay aloft there, my man." 

On board of men-of-war ships it is customary to carry lan- 
terns in the roundtops, and half a dozen seamen are stationed 
there, under the command of an able seaman who is called 
captain of the top. One night when Lieutenant Martingale had 
charge of the deck and Bob Spunyarn was captain of the main- 
top, Pedantic wished to have the top light darkened, so he hailed, 
"Main top there." "Aye, aye," said Bob. "Extinguish that noc- 
turnal luminary." Bob blustered about the top, pulling first one 
rope then another, when the lieutenant repeated his order, "Ex- 
tinguish that nocturnal luminary, I say." "Don't know what 
rope you mean, sir," replied Bob. At last the boatswain asked 
the lieutenant to let him give the order. "Main top there." "Aye 
aye, sir." "Douse the glim there, you lubber." In an instant 
the light was extinguished, Bob muttering to his topmates, 
"Blast his highflown lingo, does he think we understand Greek 
up here? Why can't he give his orders in plain English?" 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO "THE EMIGRANT" 231 

SQUIRE JUDKINS IN THE LEGISLATURE. 

Joel Judkins was a merchant in one of the eastern towns in 
Maine; that is, he kept store in a place famous for its fishing 
facilities and privileges, and sold silks, satins and salt, muslin 
and molasses, ribbons, rice and rope, hardware and honey, pins, 
needles, oars and handspikes in exchange for herrings, hay and 
potatoes, etc., etc. 

At a meeting of the "General Court," when the code of laws 
was to be revised, and, among others, the laws relating to the 
herring fishery, Joel was chosen to represent his town in that 
important matter. On arriving in Portland he put up at the 
Elm House, where he found a number of the country members 
had preceded him. They gathered around him, looking over his 
shoulders as he wrote in the register "Joel Judkins, Esquire, 
member from Mount Desert," then turning to them and shaking 
hands, he said, "Come, as I am the last comer, I 'spose it's my 
treat, what'll ye take, whiskey, gin or blackstrap ? Landlord, 
put it down to Mount Desert." 

Now Joel was much given to drowsiness, and had acquired 
the Spanish custom of taking a siesta. At an afternoon session, 
when the law relating to the fisheries was expected to be brought 
up, feeling an irresistible inclination to doze, he requested the 
gentleman who occupied the next seat to wake him when that 
matter came up, and laying his head on his desk he was soon 
lost in profound slumber. It happened that the law about sheep- 
stealing was first taken up, and at a pause in the debate Joel's 
neighbour touched him, saying, "Come, now is your time." Up 
jumped Joel, exclaiming, "Mr. Speaker! "Mr. Judkins," nodded 
the Speaker. Joel having secured the floor, took time to arrange 
his notes, rub his eyes and arrange his spectacles, then having 
taken an intellectual sip of water, he commenced his maiden 
speech : "Mr. Speaker, I wish to have something to say upon 
this subject, for it is one on which I feel myself able to throw 
some light. The people of my town have sent me here to look 
after their interests in this particular matter, and they will ex- 
pect me to speak out plainly, and, sir, I shall do so without fear 
or favour, for I feel that it most deeply concerns my constitu- 



232 



A PIONEER VOYAGE 



ents. In fact, sir, there's one-half of them get their living by it." 
The outburst of laughter that greeted this opening was only 
equalled by Joel's confusion, when he found out the mistake he 
had made. 



The Rev. Charles Milton was a very sincere good man, but 
a very eccentric genius. He was of the old school, orthodox, 
Congregational, election and damnation, hell-fire and brimstone, 
God-instructing order, and was a particular personal enemy to 
the Devil. He fought the Devil on all tacks and his pulpit was 
frequently the arena of a fierce conflict with his Satanic Majesty. 
It was a favorite expression with him, "I'll preach the truth, 
the whole truth and nothing but the truth," and on one occa- 
sion he added, "I would preach the truth to you if there were 
as many Devils in the meeting house as there are shingles on 
the roof of it." 

At another time he declared that it was his object to destroy 
the Devil and his works, and "My brethren," he added, "if you 
ask me how I will destroy the Devil, I reply I will shoot him; 
and if you ask what weapon I will use, I answer I will shoot him 
with this Bible." Suiting the action to the speech, he raised 
the pulpit Bible and holding it at arm's length he brought it 
down with emphasis upon the cushion, but shot too far, and 

down came the sacred weapon upon the head of Deacon C , 

who sat demurely in the box beneath, just raised sufficiently to 
overlook the whole congregation. Then looking over the desk, 
the facetious parson asked, "Well, Deacon, was it a good shot?" 

He had a clear full voice which rang out through the seven- 
teen heads of his discourse, each head subdivided into half a 
dozen tails. 

As the good minister advanced in years his memory began 
to fail, and his parish, much against his wishes, settled an as- 
sistant called a Colleague, but the fiery parson was not disposed 
to give in, till one Sunday afternoon, in conducting the services, 
he read the preliminary hymn and uttered his usual prayer, and 
then bestowed his blessing in benediction and was about to dis- 
miss the meeting when the Colleague reminded him that he had 
not preached his sermon. 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO "THE EMIGRANT" 233 

Mr. Milton had two daughters; the eldest was married to a 
Mr. Brown, who deserted her, and the father was obliged to 
take her home. As the second daughter became of age her 
affections were sought by another man of the same name, and 
she asked her father's permission for her friend to visit her. 
"What's his name?" he inquired. "It is Brown, sir." "Brown! 
No more of your Browns. I've been done brown once, and that 
will do for one family. No, give me green or white or gray, 
but no more of your browns, or even black." 



THE CLOSE OF THE MEXICAN WAR. 

When General Scott, with valour hot, 

Bore down on Vera Cruz — O, 
Those Mexicans grim, they thought with him 

They'd play the very deuce — O. 

But soon they found, when he broke ground, 

Before their walled city, 
The direful day was come when they 

Must sing another ditty. 

For shot and shell, where'er they fell, 
Discharged from gun or mortar, 

Within that town came rattling down 
And caused terrific slaughter. 

And then the Dons, they saw at once 

The times were full of evil. 
Full soon they thought that General Scott 

He was the very devil. 

Down came their pride, aloud they cried 

To spare their doomed city. 
Our hero brave kind answer gave, 

His great heart ope to pity. 



234 



A PIONEER VOYAGE 

But Gen'ral Scott he tarried not, 
For he must plenty more do, 

Straight on he went, with full intent 
To look at "Cerro Gordo." 

Through chaparral — o'er national, 

He came on Santa Ana, 
Who boasted naught cared he for Scott, 

With his damned Yankee banner. 

Vain, foolish boast! Scott's valiant host 
Soon taught him of his error, 

And 'twas right quick that he cut stick 
And ran away in terror. 

That battle gained, Scott entertained 

A longing for Jalapa, 
That beauteous town in turn fell down 

Before our gallant trooper. 

Pueblo's plains our hero gains 
With scarce an hour's resistance, 

Pushed boldly on and drove the Don 
Before him in the distance. 

On, on, with speed, both man and steed, 

That valiant little quota, 
Nor stopped till they in ruins lay 

The castle of Perota. 

Chepultapec! Now neck and neck 

Those heroes led by Pillow 
Rushed boldly in, resolved to win, 

'Twas a mere bagatelle — O. 

At length he sate before the gate 

Of Montezuma's city, 
Planned his attack, took all aback 

Those Mexicans so witty. 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO "THE EMIGRANT" 235 

For foolish Don thought he'd come on 

In front of little Penon ; 
They little dreamt that he'd attempt 

Another route to lean on. 

But soon they found him marching round 

The lake towards Churubusco, 
Molino Rey and Tacubay, 

They fell before 'twas dusk — O. 

Now Mexico, three miles or so 

Ahead, looked so inviting, 
They scarce could wait their chief's mandate, 

For now their trade was fighting. 

Scott, Pillow, Worth, all sallied forth 

By valiant troops surrounded, 
With battle yell they drove pell-mell 

Those Mexicans confounded. 

On still they drove, and each one strove 

To be the first to enter; 
O'er aqueducts each chief conducts 

His followers to the centre, 

Where soon they meet, in the broad street, 

And each his followers rallies, 
'Mid deafening cheers their flag uprears, 

Proud floating o'er the palace. 

That rueful day, again away 

Ran boasting Santa Ana, 
And e'er nightfall on tower and wall 

Floats the star-spangled banner. 

This closed the war, this they came for, 

All in a blaze of glory; 
They "conquered peace," their battles cease, 

And thus I end my story. 



AUG 8 1908 



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021 648 8771 




